2013–14 Top League

The Top League expanded from 14 to 16 teams for the 2013–14 season.[2] The Sanix Blues team was relegated, and Coca-Cola West Red Sparks, Kubota Spears, Toyota Industries were promoted to the Top League for 2013–14.

Team	Region	Coach	Captain
Canon Eagles	Machida, Tokyo, Kantō	Yoji Nagatomo	Taku Wada
Coca-Cola West Red Sparks	Fukuoka, Kyushu	Shogo Mukai	Masakazu Toyota
Kintetsu Liners	Higashiosaka, Osaka, Kansai	Ryusuke Maeda	Haruki Ota
Kobelco Steelers	Kobe, Kansai	Seiji Hirao	Daiki Hashimoto
Kubota Spears	Abiko, Chiba, Kantō	Takashi Yamagami	Tatsurou Konno
Kyuden Voltex	Fukuoka, Kyūshū	Koji Hirata	Makoto Matsumoto
NEC Green Rockets	Abiko, Chiba, Kantō	Greg Cooper	Ryota Asano
NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes	Osaka, Kansai	Kazunari Takano	Hiroki Yoshioka
NTT Com Shining Arcs	Chiba, Chiba, Kantō	Masato Hayashi	Hiraku Tomoigawa
Panasonic Wild Knights	Ota, Gunma, Kantō	Norifumi Nakajima	Shota Horie
Ricoh Black Rams	Tokyo, Kantō	Leon Holden	Daisuke Komatsu
Suntory Sungoliath	Fuchū, Tokyo, Kantō	Naoya Okubo	Shinya Makabe
Toshiba Brave Lupus	Fuchū, Tokyo, Kantō	Kenichi Wada	Michael Leitch
Toyota Industries Shuttles	Aichi, Mizuho	Tai McIsaac	Takayuki Kamitani
Toyota Verblitz	Toyota, Aichi, Tokai	Keiji Hirose	Ryuta Ueno
Yamaha Júbilo	Iwata, Shizuoka, Tokai	Katsuyuki Kiyomiya	Yuta Kasahara

For the Pool stage, the 16 teams were placed into 2 pools of 8 teams each and a round-robin tournament was played within each of the pools.

Then, for the Group stage, the top 4 teams from each pool went through to Group 1, and the bottom 4 teams from each pool went through to Group 2. The teams were given starting points based on where they finished in their pool. - i.e. starting points of 4, 3, 2, and 1, for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th respectively; and starting points of 4, 3, 2, and 1, for 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th respectively.

Another round-robin was played for each of the groups. The Top League teams in Group 1 ranked 1st to 4th qualified for the title play-offs to fight for the Microsoft Cup and the Top League title. The top 4 also qualified directly into the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship.

The teams in Group 1 ranked 5th to 8th, and teams in Group 2 ranked 1st to 4th went through to the wildcard play-offs for qualification into the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship.

The teams in Group 2 ranked 5th to 7th went through to the promotion and relegation play-offs against regional challengers to fight to remain in the Top League. The team in Group 2 ranked 8th was automatically relegated to the regional leagues for 2014–15.

Top 4 sides of the regular season competed in the Microsoft Cup (2014) knock out tournament to fight for the Top League title. The top 4 teams of 2013–14 were Panasonic Wild Knights, Suntory Sungoliath, Kobelco Steelers, and Toshiba Brave Lupus.

Final

	09/02/2014	Panasonic Wild Knights	45–22	Suntory Sungoliath	Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, Tokyo
	14:00	Try: Yamada 5', 49' Miyake 77' Con: Barnes (2/3) 50', 78' Pen: Barnes (8/9) 21', 24', 31', 46', 53', 69', 72', 80'	Report[1] Summary[8]	Try: Shinya 9', Du Preez 14', Aruga 36' Con: Tsukamoto (1/1) 15' Nicholas (1/2) 38' Pen: Nicholas (1/2) 60'	Attendance: 10,217[1]

Team details

Panasonic Wild Knights FB 15 Yasutaka Sasakura  76' RW 14 Tomoki Kitagawa OC 13 Seichi Shimomura IC 12 Yasuki Hayashi  48' LW 11 Akihito Yamada FH 10 Berrick Barnes SH 9 Fumiaki Tanaka  77' N8 8 Koliniasi Holani  77' OF 7 Tadasuke Nishihara BF 6 Sione Vatuvei  77' RL 5 Daniel Heenan  48' LL 4 Yu Young-nam TP 3 Tomokazu Soma  53' HK 2 Shota Horie (c) LP 1 Keita Inagaki Replacements: HK 16 Tetsuya Shitara  77' PR 17 Naoki Kawamata  55' PR 18 Ryusioapelatu Holani  53'  55' LK 19 Yoichi Ijima  48' FL 20 Daichi Wakamatsu  77' SH 21 Nicholas Ealey  77' CE 22 JP Pietersen  48' FB 23 Takashi Miyake  76' Coach: Norifumi Nakajima Suntory Sungoliath FB 15 Go Aruga  62' RW 14 Murata Daishi OC 13 Koji Taira IC 12 Ryan Nicholas LW 11 Kenta Tsukamoto FH 10 Kosei Ono  69' SH 9 Fourie Du Preez  69' N8 8 Ozawa Naoki  77' OF 7 Takamichi Sasaki BF 6 George Smith  73' RL 5 Makabe Shinya (c) LL 4 Shinozuka Koji TP 3 Hatakeyama Kensuke HK 2 Aoki Yusuke LP 1 Kanei Tateo  73' Replacements: HK 16 Shintaro Ishihara  73' PR 17 Ozaki Akira PR 18 Ikegaya Yosuke FL 19 Takemoto Juntaro  77' FL 20 Hendrik Tui  73' SH 21 Hiwasa Atsushi  69' CE 22 Tusi Pisi  69' FB 23 Nagatomo Yasunori  62' Coach: Naoya Okubo

The Top League Group 1 teams ranked 5–8 and Group 2 teams ranked 1–4 played off over two rounds, with the second round winners qualifying for the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship.

Fukuoka Sanix Blues won promotion to the 2014–15 Top League via the 2013–14 Top League Challenge Series, while Honda Heat, Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars and Yokogawa Musashino Atlastars progressed to the promotion play-offs.

The Top League teams in Group 2 ranked 5th, 6th, and 7th, played-off against the Challenge 1 teams ranked 4th, 3rd, and 2nd, respectively, for the right to be included in the Top League for the following season.

So Coca-Cola West Red Sparks, NTT Docomo, and NTT remained in the Top League for the next season.

At the end of season awards, Panasonic Wild Knights flyhalf Berrick Barnes was named Top League MVP, a day after helping his side to the league title. He was handed his trophy by Japan coach Eddie Jones.[9]

Individual awards

Award	Winner
Top League MVP:	Berrick Barnes (Panasonic)
Rookie award:	Keita Inagaki (Panasonic) and Kyosuke Horie (Yamaha)
Most tries:	Jaque Fourie (Kobe Steel) 17 tries
Top scorer:	Ryan Nicholas (Suntory)
Best kicker:	Ryan Nicholas (Suntory)
Best referee:
Playoffs MVP:

Team of the season

#	Winner
1.	Keita Inagaki (Panasonic)
2.	Shota Horie (Panasonic)
3.	Kensuke Hatakeyama (Suntory)
4.	Hitoshi Ono (Toshiba)
5.	Daniel Heenan (Panasonic)
6.	George Smith (Suntory)
7.	Tadasuke Nishihara (Panasonic)
8.	Kyosuke Horie (Yamaha)
9.	Atsushi Hiwasa (Suntory)
10.	Berrick Barnes (Panasonic)
11.	Akihito Yamada (Panasonic)
12.	Male Sa'u (Yamaha)
13.	Jaque Fourie (Kobe Steel)
14.	Tomoki Kitagawa (Panasonic)
15.	Ayumu Goromaru (Yamaha)