NEC Green Rockets Top League Profile 2013-14
Top League Profiles 2013-14
(8) NEC Green Rockets
2013-14 Introduction : Last season (2012-13) NEC finished eighth on the final Top League table, dropping from fourth from the previous season.
A lot of the success at NEC in the past few seasons could be put down to one man: giant Fijian winger Nemani Nadolo. The larger than life Fijian international at 195cm and 129kg won the leading try scorer title in Top League two seasons back and he should again prove to be almost impossible to stop again this year. Nevertheless, NEC are far from a one man show and the club is gradually rebuilding with a lot of young talent coming through after some lean years over recent times. One of the up and coming stars is five-eighth Yu Tamura and his potential has not gone unnoticed either as he has gone on to national honours under Eddie Jones. Other rising players include flanker Tsuyoshi Murata and No8 Makoto Tosa. Other established players at NEC include Ryota Asano and Nili Latu in the forwards and Anthony Tuitavake and wing Koichiro Kubota in the backs. Finally, former Japan fullback Shaun Webb joins the Rockets from Coca-Cola this season.
Established : NEC (Nippon Denki Kabushiki geisha) are another of the relatively newer clubs in Top League having only been established in 1985 with the team based in the NEC factory complex in Abiko city in north-western Chiba prefecture. The green in Green Rockets refers to the grass of the playing fields upon which NEC battles. While the rocket is the image of a fast and powerful NEC leading the way in the 21 st century. NEC also have in their sports stable the Blue Rockets (men’s volleyball team) and the Red Rockets (women’s volleyball team).
In 2011-12 NEC finished fourth on the table and qualified for the play-offs for the first time. In 2010-11 NEC finished sixth on the final Top League table after they slumped to tenth in 2009-10. NEC had relatively disappointing 2008-9, 2007-8 and 2006-7 seasons by their standards finishing fifth, sixth and seventh on the table respectively. However, apart from these seasons, the club has been very successful over recent years.
The Company : The company itself was founded in 1899 and was known in English as Nippon Electric Company, Limited until it was re-branded as NEC Corporation in 1983. NEC is an electrical, electronics and IT company. See www.nec.co.jp.
Titles :
Top League – none.
From the 2003-4 season to the 2005-6 season, Top League consisted of 12 teams and the team that finished on top of the table claimed the title. In the 2006-7 season, Top League was increased to 14 teams with the top four finishers on the ladder progressing to the Microsoft Cup, the play-off series to determine the overall Top League champion. From the 2009-10 season, the Microsoft company did not renew their naming rights sponsorship and so the finals series became known as the Top League Play-off Tournament.
2012-13 (14 teams): 8th on table on 32 points with 6 wins and 7 losses.
2011-12 (14 teams): 4th on table on 41 points with 8 wins and 5 losses. Lost to Suntory 56-8 in play-off semi-finals.
2010-11 (14 teams): 6th on table on 34 points with 7 wins and 6 losses.
2009-10 (14 teams): 10th on table on 25 points with 4 wins and 9 losses.
2008-9 (14 teams): 5th on table on 37 points with 8 wins and 5 losses.
2007-8 (14 teams): 6th on table on 42 points with 9 wins and 4 losses.
2006-7 (14 teams): 7th on table on 38 points with 7 wins and 6 losses.
2005-6 (12 teams): 3rd on table on 41 points with 9 wins and 2 losses.
2004-5 (12 teams): 3rd on table on 44 points with 9 wins and 2 losses.
2003-4 (12 teams): 6th on table on 27 points with 5 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses.
Microsoft Cup – (as a standalone Cup 2004-2006) once (2004).
From 2004 to 2006 the Microsoft Cup was a separate knock-out tournament for the top 8 finishers in Top League. From 2007 the Microsoft Cup acted as the play-off finals series to determine the overall Top League champion with the top four finishers on the Top League ladder progressing to the Microsoft Cup. The Microsoft company did not renew their naming rights sponsorship for the 2009-10 Top League season and so the 2010 finals series became known as the Top League Play-off Tournament.
2009 : DNQ.
2008 : DNQ.
2007 : DNQ.
2006 : beat Toyota 17-12 in first round & knocked out by Toshiba 23-10 in semi-finals.
2005 : knocked out by Kobe 51-16 in first round.
2004 : Champions. Defeated Kobe 34-10 in SF, Suntory 32-5 in QF and Toshiba 24-19 in final.
National Championship –3 times (2006 (joint champions with Toshiba after final drawn at 6-all), 2005 and 2002).
After 22 teams participated in the 2004 National Championship it was reduced to 8 teams for 2005 consisting of the top four Top League sides, the top two universities, the top challenger from lower divisions and the top club side. In 2009 the number of teams was increased to ten with two additional Top League sides.
For 2010 the Wildcard Tournament was introduced to the National Championship for the Top League sides that finished fifth to tenth on the final table. In 2011 these six sides were: Kobe (fifth on 36 points), NEC (sixth on 34 points), Ricoh (seventh on 32 points), Sanix (eighth on 32 points), Kintetsu (ninth on 31 points) and Coca-Cola (tenth on 28 points). The teams played off over two weekends with Kobe and Ricoh winning the right to participate in the NC as the final two Top League participants. In 2012 the Wildcard Tournament was abbreviated to the four teams that finished fifth to eighth with fifth placed Kintetsu Liners playing eighth placed Yamaha Jubilo and sixth placed Kobe Steelers playing seventh placed Ricoh Black Rams. Kobe beat Ricoh 32-19 and Yamaha beat Kintetsu 17-15 with the winners thus qualifying for the up-coming 49 th National Championship.
For 2013, the Wildcard Tournament again featured six teams, that is, the six teams that finished fifth to tenth on the final Top League table for the 2012-13 season. In the first round, eighth placed NEC Green Rockets beat ninth placed NTT Communications Shining Arcs 38-14 and seventh placed Kintetsu Liners beat tenth placed Ricoh Black Rams 43-21. In the second round the following weekend, sixth placed Yamaha Jubilo beat Kintetsu 70-12 and fifth placed Toyota Verblitz beat NEC 41-23. The two winners from the second round in Yamaha and Toyota qualified for the National Championship as the Wildcard Qualifiers.
2013 (50th NC – 10 teams): DNQ.
2012 (49th NC – 10 teams): Beat Kobe 17-10 in 1st round, Canon 62-19 in 2nd round and lost to Panasonic 41-3 in semi-finals.
2011 (48th NC – 10 teams): Beat Ricoh 38-33 in Wildcard Tournament to qualify. Lost to Toshiba 21-10 in first round.
2010 (47th NC – 10 teams): Beat Sanix 33-5 and Kubota 22-21 in Wildcard Tournament to qualify for NC. Drew with Suntory 10-all in first round but won on lottery ballot, beat Teikyo Uni. 38-5 in QFs then lost to Sanyo 25-16 in SFs.
2009 (46th NC – 10 teams): Beat Kobe 30-29 in first round, then lost to Ricoh 24-23 in second round.
2008 (45th NC – 8 teams): DNQ as only top 4 TL teams qualified.
2007 (44th NC – 8 teams): DNQ as only top 4 TL teams qualified.
2006 (43rd NC – 8 teams): Joint Champions. Beat Coca-Cola 69-24 in QFs & Sanyo 24-16 in SFs. Drew the final 6-all with Toshiba.
2005 (42nd NC – 8 teams): Champions. Beat Yamaha 24-13 in SFs, Sanix 55-21 in QFs & Toyota 17-13 in final.
2004 (41st NC – 22 teams): Beat KGU 43-13, Suntory 34-27 in QFs & lost 34-29 to Kobe in SFs.
Corporate Championship – none. The Corporate Championship started in 1949 and ended with the 55th Corporate Championship in 2003 as a consequence of the introduction of Top League as the national corporate league in the 2003-4 season.