Mie Honda Heat
三重ホンダヒート
Full nameMie Honda Heat
UnionJapan Rugby Football Union
Nickname(s)Heat
Founded1960
LocationSuzuka, Mie, Japan
Ground(s)Honda Active Land and Suzuka Sports Garden
ChairmanTakanobu Ito
Coach(es)Taihei Ueda
League(s)Japan Rugby League One, Division Two
20222nd
Lost promotion/relegation match
1st kit
2nd kit

Mie Honda Heat is a Japanese rugby union team based in Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, Japan. The owner of the club is Honda Motor. (Suzuka is known for the Suzuka Circuit and the presence of car companies. Conveniently, the team uses Suzuka to jog on as part of their training programme.)

They play in the Japan Rugby League One, the top tier of the Japan's rugby union hierarchy.

In 2011–12, Honda Heat were relegated to regional events for 2012–13. Winning 2 and drawing 1 of their 13 games in the regular season.

The team rebranded as Mie Honda Heat ahead of the rebranding of the Top League as the Japan Rugby League One in 2022.[1]

History

Honda Motor Co. established its rugby club in 1960 at the Suzuka Factory. The team gained promotion to the Kansai A-League for the 1978 season, and then finished sixth in the seven-team competition in for that year. Honda remained a fixture in the Kansai A-League, being demoted only once (for the 1985 season) before it was renamed the Top West A-League in 2003-04 with the introduction of Japan's Top League.

Honda did not qualify for inclusion in the Top League for inaugural season—that had to wait for another six years—but the team continued to play in the Top West A-League. After winning the league in 2008-09 under New Zealander John Sherratt, Honda Heat was promoted. The team played one Top League season in 2009–10 before being demoted and another in 2011–12 before being demoted again to Top West A, where they remained for three seasons.

Honda won the Top West A-League in 2014–15, and was promoted once again for the 2015–16 season of Top League, finishing at 11th place.[2] So the team stayed for another term, this time ending the tournament at place 16th of 16 and being relegated to the newly introduced second-tier Top Challenge League.[3]

The season 2017–18 was played as a round-robin tournament, the Heats managing to win and become promoted automatically for the 2018–19 Top League season, back to first tier status.[4]

Current squad

The current Mie Honda Heat squad for the 2023-24 season is:[5]

Mie Honda Heat squad

Props

  • Japan Hayato Akahira
  • South Africa Matthys Basson
  • Japan Takumi Fuji
  • Japan Masahiro Hibino
  • Japan Kanato Hirano
  • Japan Katsuyuki Hoshino
  • Japan Tateo Kanai
  • Japan Tatsuhiko Tsurukawa
  • Japan Taiki Yoshioka

Hookers

  • Japan Kouki Hida
  • Japan Shun Hizume
  • South Korea Lee Seung Hyok
  • Japan Hiroaki Shirahama

Locks

Loose forwards

Scrum-halves

  • Japan Hisayoshi Ito
  • Japan Shogo Nezuka
  • Japan Takuya Obata
  • Japan Kenta Yamaji

Fly-halves

Centres

  • South Korea Oh Gwang Tee
  • Japan Kaito Kawai
  • South Africa Dawid Kellerman
  • Australia Clynton Knox
  • Australia Fraser Quirk
  • Japan Issei Shige
  • Japan Soki Watanabe

Wingers

Fullbacks

  • Australia Tom Banks
  • Japan Kotaro Kono
  • Japan Yuta Matsura
  • Japan Taichi Takenaka
  • Japan Haruhiko Uemura
  • Japan Kanta Watanabe
(c) Denotes team captain, Bold denotes player is internationally capped

Coaches

See also

References

  1. ↑ "La nouvelle ligue japonaise s'appelle la Japan Rugby League One". Asie Rugby (in French). 16 July 2021. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  2. ↑ Rugbyarchive.net, Top League season 2015–16
  3. ↑ Rugbyarchive.net, Top League season 2016–17
  4. ↑ Rugbyarchive.net, Top Challenge League season 2017–18
  5. ↑ "Player Profiles" 選手紹介. Honda Heat. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  6. ↑ "John Sherratt". Linkedin.com. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  7. ↑ "Japan prop Koo Ji Won and head coach Danny Lee among those leaving Honda Heat". Twitter.com. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  8. ↑ "Players & Staff ｜ Honda HEAT Rugby Football Club". Honda-heat.jp. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
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