The 2018 Top Challenge League was the second season of
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
's second-tier domestic
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 ...
competition, the
Top Challenge League
The Top Challenge League was a professional rugby union competition in Japan. It was the second-highest level of rugby competition in the country and is a companies league; all the teams are owned by major companies and the players are generally ...
.
It was played from 8 September to 9 December 2018, with eight participating teams.
NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes
Red Hurricanes Osaka is a Japanese rugby union team owned by NTT Communications. They qualified for the 2011–12 Top League, 2011–12 season and finished 12th place overall. The team rebranded in 2022, ahead of the rebranding of the Top League ...
won the competition for the third time – having previously won in
2010–11
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...
and
2016–17 and qualified for the
promotion play-offs
Promotion may refer to:
Marketing
* Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...
, along with
Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars
also known as Mitsubishi Juko Sagamihara Rugby Club, are a Japanese rugby union team based in Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The owner of this club is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
The club was founded in 1981. It ...
,
Kintetsu Liners
Hanazono Kintetsu Liners are a Japanese rugby union team owned by Kintetsu Corporation which was founded in 1929. They have won the All-Japan Championship three times as an amateur team. Their home is at Hanazono Rugby Stadium, which was also ...
and
Kurita Water Gush
Kurita Water Gush Akishima is a Japanese rugby union team competing in Division Three of Japan Rugby League One. Owned by Kurita Water Industries, a water treatment chemical manufacturer, the team is based in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. T ...
.
Kamaishi Seawaves
Kamaishi Seawaves is a Rugby union football
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# ...
and
Chugoku Red Regulions
Chugoku Electric Power Rugby Football Club – nicknamed the Red Regulions – is a Japanese rugby union team, currently playing in the Japan Rugby League One. The team is the rugby team of electric utilities provider Chugoku Electric Power, based ...
finished seventh and eighth respectively to qualify for the
relegation play-offs
Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...
.
Competition rules
In January 2017, the
JRFU announced the format of the Top Challenge League competition. The competition was played in two stages. The First Stage was a
round-robin format, where all eight teams played each other once.
The top four teams in the First Stage progressed to Group A of the Second Stage, while the bottom four teams progressed to Group B. Each of these groups was another round-robin, with all four teams playing each other once.
The four teams that competed in Group A progressed to
promotion play-offs
Promotion may refer to:
Marketing
* Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...
against the bottom four teams in the
2018–19 Top League.
The two team that finished bottom and second-bottom of Group B progressed to the
relegation play-offs
Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...
, along with the winners and the runners-up of the Regional Challenge, held between the champions of the
Top East League,
Top West League and
Top Kyūshū League.
Teams
The following teams took part in the 2018 Top Challenge League competition:
First stage
Standings
The current standings for the 2018 Top Challenge League First Stage are:
Matches
The 2018 Top Challenge League First Stage fixtures are:
Round one
Round two
Round three
Round four
Round five
Round six
Round seven
Second Stage Group A
Standings
The standings for the 2018 Top Challenge League Second Stage Group A are:
*
Kintetsu Liners
Hanazono Kintetsu Liners are a Japanese rugby union team owned by Kintetsu Corporation which was founded in 1929. They have won the All-Japan Championship three times as an amateur team. Their home is at Hanazono Rugby Stadium, which was also ...
,
Kurita Water Gush
Kurita Water Gush Akishima is a Japanese rugby union team competing in Division Three of Japan Rugby League One. Owned by Kurita Water Industries, a water treatment chemical manufacturer, the team is based in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. T ...
,
Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars
also known as Mitsubishi Juko Sagamihara Rugby Club, are a Japanese rugby union team based in Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The owner of this club is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
The club was founded in 1981. It ...
and
NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes
Red Hurricanes Osaka is a Japanese rugby union team owned by NTT Communications. They qualified for the 2011–12 Top League, 2011–12 season and finished 12th place overall. The team rebranded in 2022, ahead of the rebranding of the Top League ...
qualified for the
promotion play-offs
Promotion may refer to:
Marketing
* Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...
.
Matches
Round one
Round two
Round three
Second Stage Group B
Standings
The standings for the 2018 Top Challenge League Second Stage Group B are:
*
Kyuden Voltex
Kyūshu Kyuden Voltex is a Japanese rugby team owned by Kyushu Electric Power Co. (Kyūshū Denryoku). The nickname "Voltex" is a conflation of "Voltage" and "Techniques" and was decided after the team won promotion to the Top League. The team i ...
and
Mazda Blue Zoomers
Skyactivs Hiroshima (formerly Mazda Blue Zoomers) are a Japanese rugby union team who compete in the Japan Rugby League One. They were formerly owned by car manufacturers Mazda based in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. The team rebranded as Skyactivs H ...
remain in the Top Challenge League for 2019.
*
Chugoku Red Regulions
Chugoku Electric Power Rugby Football Club – nicknamed the Red Regulions – is a Japanese rugby union team, currently playing in the Japan Rugby League One. The team is the rugby team of electric utilities provider Chugoku Electric Power, based ...
and
Kamaishi Seawaves
Kamaishi Seawaves is a Rugby union football
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# ...
qualify for the
relegation play-offs
Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...
.
Matches
Round one
Round two
Round three
Relegation play-offs
* Top Challenge League side
Kamaishi Seawaves
Kamaishi Seawaves is a Rugby union football
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# ...
won their match to remain in the Top Challenge League for
2019
This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year.
Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...
.
* Top Challenge League side
Chugoku Red Regulions
Chugoku Electric Power Rugby Football Club – nicknamed the Red Regulions – is a Japanese rugby union team, currently playing in the Japan Rugby League One. The team is the rugby team of electric utilities provider Chugoku Electric Power, based ...
lost their match and was relegated to the Top Kyūshū League for 2019.
* Top League East side
Shimizu Blue Sharks won their match to win promotion to the Top Challenge League for
2019
This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year.
Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...
.
* Top League West side
Chubu Electric Power
, abbreviated as Chuden in Japanese, is a Japanese electric utilities provider for the middle Chūbu region of the Honshu island of Japan. It provides electricity at 60 Hz, though an area of Nagano Prefecture uses 50 Hz. Chubu Electric ...
lost their match to remain in the Top League West for 2019.
The matches played were:
See also
*
2018–19 Top League
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Top Challenge League, 2018
2018
Events January
* January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency.
* January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...
2018–19 in Japanese rugby union
2018–19 rugby union tournaments for clubs