Japan Rugby Top League 2016-2017 Awards
Champion: Suntory Sungoliath.
Runner-up: Yamaha Jubilo.
Best XV 2016-17:
In the fourteenth season of Top League, Suntory dominated the Best XV for the 2016-17 season filling six places while Yamaha and Panasonic had three spots each. Ricoh, Kobe and Kubota had one each.
There were nine players making the Best XV for the first time, following on from seven debutants last year. Panasonic loosehead prop Keita Inagaki and Panasonic lock Daniel Heenan were the only players to appear in the XV last season. Three of the fifteen were born overseas.
| No. | Position |
Name |
Club | Times in
Best XV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Loosehead prop |
Keita Inagaki |
Panasonic | 4 |
| 2 | Hooker | Takeshi Hino | Yamaha | 1 |
| 3 | Tighthead prop | Heiichiro Ito | Yamaha | 1 |
| 4 | Lock | Joe Wheeler | Suntory | 1 |
| 5 | Lock | Daniel Heenan | Panasonic | 6 |
| 6 | Flanker |
George Smith |
Suntory | 4 |
| 7 | Flanker |
Shunsuke Nunomaki |
Panasonic | 1 |
| 8 | No8 | Shuhei Matsuhashi | Ricoh | 1 |
| 9 | Halfback | Yutaka Nagare | Suntory | 1 |
| 10 | Five-eighth | Kosei Ono | Suntory | 3 |
| 11 | Wing | Takaaki Nakazuru | Suntory | 1 |
| 12 | Centre | Viliami Tahitua | Yamaha | 1 |
| 13 | Centre | Harumichi Tatekawa | Kubota | 1 |
| 14 | Wing | Rakuhei Yamashita | Kobe | 2 |
| 15 | Fullback | Kotaro Matsushima | Suntory | 2 |
Top League Best and Fairest (MVP): Takaaki Nakazuru, wing, Suntory.
Suntory wing Takaaki Nakazuru took out the accolade as Best and Fairest for the 2016-17 season for the first.
Rookie: Shuhei Matsuhashi, No8, Ricoh.
In his first season of senior rugby, Ricoh No8 Shuhei Matsuhashi was named best youngest player for the season. Matsuhashi graduated from Meiji University. New Japan head coach Jamie Joseph picked Matsuhashi in his national squad for the autumn 2016 internationals and he made his debut from the bench against Argentina in Tokyo. He also started from the bench against Wales and Fiji. At the time of writing, he has three caps. He has Japan player number 627.
Top point scorer: Kosei Ono, five-eighth, Suntory, 187 points.
Suntory five-eighth Kosei Ono racked up a personal tally of 187 points from 3 tries, 56 conversions and 20 penalty goals from 15 games to take the top point scorer award for the first time. He became the second Suntory player after Ryan Nicholas in 2006-7 and 2012-13. The next best point scorer was Yamaha fullback Gerhard van den Heever on 171 points.
Top try scorers: Takaaki Nakazuru, wing, Suntory 17 tries.
Top goal kicker: Gerhard van den Heever, fullback, Yamaha, 151 points from 59 conversions and 11 penalties at 82.35% success rate.
Best referee: Akihasa Aso.
This category was introduced in the 2005-6 season with Akihisa Aso taking out the title for the fourth year in a row and fourth time overall.
The Century Club: The 2016-17 season marked the fourteenth season of Top League since it was launched in 2003-4. This season, 13 players achieved the milestone of one hundred Top League games, bringing the total to 64 players. Moreover, three players became the first players to achieve the milestone of 150 Top League games.
Hiroshi Yamashita (Kobe)
Toetu’u Taufa (Kintetsu)
Kim Chul-Won (Kintetsu)
Yoichi Iijima (Panasonic)
Atsushi Tanabe (Kintetsu)
Takahiro Sugiura (Sanix)
Ryu Koliniasi Holani (Panasonic)
Yuta Inose (NEC)
Fumiaki Tanaka (Panasonic)
Daniel Heenan (Panasonic)
Bryce Robins (Sanix/Honda/NEC/Ricoh)
Juntaro Takemoto (Suntory)
Hiroki Yuhara (Toshiba)
150 Top League games
Hitoshi Ono (Toshiba)
Tatsuhiko Otao (Yamaha)
Ryo Yamamura (Yamaha)
Referee Century Club
Kyosuke Toda
Taizo Hirabayashi
Try Century Club
This season, Panasonic wing Tomoki Kitagawa became the second player to score 100 Top League tries after Hirotoki Onozawa (Suntory/Canon).
Fair play team: Yamaha.
The fair play team is the team that gives away the least amount of penalties over the season. Yamaha won this award for the first time.
Best fan service: Kobe and Ricoh.