Sunwolves

Sunwolves

Full name	Sunwolves
Founded	2015
Stadion	Prince Chichibu Stadium
Places	approx. 30,000
president	Yuichi Ueno
Trainer	Naoya Okubo
Homepage	www.sunwolves.or.jp
league	Great rugby
2020	15th place
home Away

Home of the Sunwolves , the Prince Chichibu Stadium in Tokyo.

The Sunwolves ( Japanese サ ン ウ ル ブ ズ , Sanurubuzu ; for German sun wolves ) were a professional rugby union team from the Japanese capital Tokyo .

History and structure

The team has played in the international rugby union league Super Rugby against other professional teams from Argentina , Australia , New Zealand and South Africa since the 2016 season . It officially represented as a selection team the clubs playing in the professional Japanese rugby union league Top League and the national Japanese rugby union federation , but was not identical with the Japanese national rugby union team .

The Sunwolves started in a preliminary group against seven other teams, one from Argentina and six from South Africa. The team played their home games in the Prinz Chichibu Stadium with around 30,000 seats in Tokyo and on special occasions in the Sports Hub Stadium with around 55,000 seats in Singapore .

Founded in 2015, the team was designed as a franchise . Their education was based on the initiative to expand the competitions held in the southern hemisphere between the rugby union national teams of Australia , New Zealand and South Africa to include more nations. As early as 2011, the annual Rugby Championship tournament was expanded to include the Argentine national rugby union team . Before the 2019 season , the management of the Sunwolves announced their dissolution at the end of the 2020 season . The reasons given were financing problems and the failed search for appropriate sponsors. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic , the termination was finally declared in June 2020 with immediate effect.

In order to create a name for the team, more than 3,300 suggestions were collected via a website specially posted on the Internet. The chosen name of the team referred to Japan's reputation as the land of the rising sun , while the wolf was supposed to symbolize the bravery, strength and fighting spirit of the team. Break the Line was chosen as the slogan for the Sunwolves .

Player and coach

Squad

The roster for the 2019 season:

pier  Keita Inagaki  Koo Ji-won  Pauliasi Manu  Craig Millar  Sam Prattley  Asaeli Ai Valu  Hencus van Wyk  Alex Woonton  Hiroshi Yamashita hooker  Djaba Bregvadze  Shota Horie  Yusuke Niwai  Atsushi Sakate  Nathan Vella Second row striker  Mark Abbott  Grant Hattingh  Uwe Helu  Kazuki Himeno  James Moore  Kara Pryor  Tom Rowe  Luke Thompson  Wimpie van der Walt

Third row striker  Ben Gunter  Pieter Lappies Labuschagne  Michael Leitch  Dan Pryor  Edward Quirk  Hendrik Tui  Rahboni Warren Vosayaco Half of the crowd  Jamie Booth  Yutaka Nagare  Kaito Shigeno  Fumiaki Tanaka  Keisuke Uchida Interconnects  Rikiya Matsuda  Hayden Parker  Yū Tamura

Inner three quarters  Phil Burleigh  Shane Gates  Michael Little  Ryoto Nakamura  Rene Ranger  William Tupou Outer three quarters /  Kenki Fukuoka  Lomano Lava Lemeki  Semisi Masireva  Hosea Saumaki Goalkeeper  Jason Emery  Jamie Henry  Gerhard van den Heever

Head coach

• Mark Hammett (2016)
• Filo Tiatia (2017)
• Jamie Joseph (2018)
• Tony Brown (2019)
• Naoya Okubo (2020)

Placements

year	Games	Victories	Unent.	Ndlg.	Game points	Diff.	Bonus points	Table points	space	Playoffs
2016	15th	1	1	13	293: 627	- 334	3	9	18th
2017	15th	2	0	13	315: 671	- 356	4th	12	17th
2018	16	3	0	13	404: 664	- 260	2	14th	15th
2019	16	2	0	14th	294: 584	- 290	4th	12	15th

Web links

• Official website of the Sunwolves
• Official internet portal of the Japan Rugby Union Federation
• Information platform on international super rugby
• Information platform of the Japanese Top League (Japanese)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ス ー パ ー ラ グ ビ ー 日本 チ ー ム の 名称 が サ ン ウ ル ル ブ ズ に 決定. Retrieved October 6, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Super Rugby welcomes the sunwolves. Retrieved October 5, 2015 . 
3. ↑ New Japanese Super Rugby team confirmed as being called The Sunwolves. Retrieved October 5, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Sunwolves confirm time in Super Rugby is over. In: rte.com. Raidió Teilifís Éireann , June 1, 2020, accessed June 8, 2020 . 
5. ^ Name the team contest for the 2016 season. Retrieved October 5, 2015 . 
6. ↑ 2019 Squad. Sunwolves, accessed February 13, 2019 .