The Ganbatte Trophy was a silver cup presented to the winner of any

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

match between the

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels were an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria that competed in the Super Rugby competition. The Rebels made their debut in SANZAAR, SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. T ...

team from Australia and the

Sunwolves The Sunwolves ( Japanese: ) – previously known as the HITO-Communications Sunwolves for sponsorship reasons – were a professional rugby union team and Japan's representative team in SANZAAR's international Super Rugby competition. The team w ...

team from Japan. The word ''Ganbatte'' (, "Do your best") is often used as an exhortation at Japanese sporting events meaning to "Go for it!" or to strive.

History

The Melbourne Rebels recruited Japanese international players

Shota Horie Shota may refer to: * Shota (dance), a traditional dance from Kosovo * Shota (vehicle), Albanian mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle * Shota (Georgian given name), a Georgian given name * Shōta, a Japanese given name * Shota (wrestler), Japanes ...

in 2013, followed by

Keita Inagaki is a Japanese professional rugby union player who plays as a prop for Japan Rugby League One club Saitama Wild Knights and the Japan national team. Club career Inagaki started his professional career with the Panasonic Wild Knights where he ...

, Male Sau, and Kotaro Matsushima. The club was the first in Australia to launch a website in the Japanese language. In 2016, following the introduction of the Sunwolves team to the

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

competition, the Ganbatte Trophy was inaugurated to mark the relationship between the Rebels and Japanese rugby.17 March 2011 Rebels And Sunwolves Unveil Ganbatte Trophy
（Official Website of Melbourne Rebels, 18 March 2016 Retrieved 20 March 2016）Ganbatte Trophy 創設
（Official Website of Sunwolves, 18 March 2016 Retrieved 20 March 2016） The Rebels won the trophy on 5 of the 6 occasions the trophy was contested, with the Sunwolves solitary win coming in February 2020. The 7th and final contesting of the trophy scheduled for March 2020 was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, with the Sunwolves being disbanded in June 2020 following the cancellation of the

2020 Super Rugby season The 2020 Super Rugby season was the 25th season of Super Rugby, the international men's rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR involving teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. It was the third tournament in i ...

Results

Overview

List

* (Brackets) denotes total matches the shield was held.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite web , date= 17 March 2011 , title= Japan’s Resolve is found in its language , first= Tim , last=Patterson , website= Matador Network , access-date= 12 May 2016 , url= http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/japans-resolve-is-found-in-its-language/ , url-status= live , archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160512120757/http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/japans-resolve-is-found-in-its-language/ , archive-date= 12 May 2016 {{cite news , date= 5 February 2016 , title= Melbourne Rebels sign Japanese back Kotaro Matsushima for Super Rugby season , first= Roy , last= Ward , work= The Age , publisher= Fairfax , location = Melbourne , url= http://www.theage.com.au/rugby-union/rebels/melbourne-rebels-sign-japanese-back-kotaro-matsushima-for-super-rugby-season-20160205-gmmpsl.html , access-date= 12 May 2016

External links