(born 2 August 1985 in

Miyagi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,265,724 (1 August 2023) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akit ...

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 ...

) is a former

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

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 ...

player who played for the

New England Free Jacks The New England Free Jacks are an American professional rugby union team based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Rugby (MLR). They were announced in September 2018 and began to compete professionally in October 2018. They co ...

Major League Rugby Major League Rugby (MLR) is a professional rugby union competition in the United States. The league comprises 11 teams. While operating outside of the governance and oversight of the national governing body, the league is officially sanctioned ...

(MLR). Hatakeyama has played 78

matches A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...

for the

Japan national rugby union team The Japan national rugby union team, also known as the Cherry Blossoms, the Brave Blossoms (), or simply Sakura, represents Japan in men's international rugby union. Japan is traditionally the strongest rugby union power in Asia and has enjoyed ...

Professional rugby career

Hatakeyama was a member of the Japan team at the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup, was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The World Rugby, International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japa ...

; he played four matches and scored one try. He was also a member of the Japan team that competed in the

2015 Rugby World Cup The IRB 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was ...

, including the historic victory over the South Africa Springboks in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

. In July 2017, Hatakeyama was appointed a Representative Director of the Japanese Rugby Football Association. In 2020, Hatakeyama joined the

, debuting for the Free Jacks in the team's MLR debut.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hatakeyama, Kensuke 1985 births Living people Expatriate rugby union players in England Expatriate rugby union players in the United States Japan international rugby union players Japanese expatriate rugby union players Japanese expatriate sportspeople in England Japanese expatriate sportspeople in the United States New England Free Jacks players Newcastle Falcons players People from Kesennuma, Miyagi Rugby union props Sportspeople from Miyagi Prefecture Tokyo Sungoliath players Waseda University Rugby Football Club players Japanese rugby union players Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi players 2011 Rugby World Cup players 2015 Rugby World Cup players 21st-century Japanese sportsmen