Top League Profiles 2017-18: Suntory Sungoliath
Top League Profiles 2017-18
Suntory Sungoliath
2017-18 Introduction: In the 2016-17 season, Suntory Sungoliath went through the season undefeated and collected both the Japan Rugby Top League title and the National Championship crown along the way.
On the back of such a successful season, Suntory will come into the new season keen for more titles. The Sungoliath have some of the cream of local rugby talent in their ranks such as tighthead prop Kensuke Hatakeyama, halfback Yutaka Nagare, five-eighth Kosei Ono, wing Shota Emi and fullback Kotaro Matsushima, while, the overseas talent is just as impressive. Centre Matt Giteau joins the squad this year from Toulon and his 103 test caps of experience for the Wallabies will help guide the backs around the park. Meanwhile, former Wallaby back-rower George Smith is back with the team for another season along with Reds teammate Hendrik Tui and Highlanders lock Joe Wheeler.
The Coach: Keisuke Sawaki is again head coach at Suntory for the 2017-18 season.
The Captain: Halfback Yutaka Nagare is again captain at Suntory for the 2017-18 season.
The 2017-18 Squad: (44) The list starts with captain and vice-captains and then continues through forwards and backs in order from props to fullbacks. All family names come last.
Yutaka Nagare (c). Forwards: Kensuke Hatakeyama, Shinsuke Nakamura, Shintaro Ishihara, Shinnosuke Kakinaga, Yukio Morikawa, Genki Sudo, Yusuke Aoki, Takuya Kitade, Shunta Nakamura, Shinya Makabe, Joe Wheeler, Hiroki Terata, Wataru Kobayashi, Koji Iino, George Smith, Masakatsu Nishikawa, Satoshi Oshima, Kenta Nakasone, Sota Oketani, Juntaro Takemoto, Jordan Smiler, Hendrik Tui and Naoki Ozawa. Backs: Atsushi Hiwasa, Kazutaka Ashida, Genki Okoshi, Hiroki Miyamoto, Kosei Ono, Ryoto Nakamura, Hikaru Tamura, Matt Giteau, Daishi Murata, Derek Carpenter, Kenta Tsukamoto, Campbell Magnay, Yasunori Nagatomo, Shohei Takeshita, Takaaki Nakazuru, Chihito Matsui, Shuetsu Narita, Ryutaro Takemoto, Shota Emi and Kotaro Matsushima. Coach: Keisuke Sawaki.