Mie Honda Heat

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.)

Mie Honda Heat
三重ホンダヒート

Full name	Mie Honda Heat
Union	Japan Rugby Football Union
Nickname(s)	Heat
Founded	1960
Location	Suzuka, Mie, Japan
Ground(s)	Suzuka Sports Garden (Capacity: 12,000)
Chairman	Takanobu Ito
Coach(es)	Kieran Crowley
League(s)	Japan Rugby League One, Division Two
2022	2nd Lost promotion/relegation match
1st kit 2nd kit
Official website
www.honda-heat.jp

They play in the Japan Rugby League One, the top tier of 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 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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 Hayato Akahira Tatsuhiko Tsurukawa Takumi Fuji (c) Kanato Hirano Matthys Basson* Katsuyuki Hoshino Taiki Yoshioka Gun Tajima Kenta Hirai Hookers Kouki Hida Shun Hizume Hiroaki Shirahama Kazuhiro Koike Ikuma Yamada Ren Toma REP Locks Yoji Akiyama Ryoma Nishimura Mark Abbott* Janko Swanepoel Connor Wihongi* Franco Mostert Sam Shepherd Yu Kasakake	Flankers Tevita Tupou Waimana Kapa Kosuke Hattori Ryota Kobayashi Ryo Furuta Tony Hunt* Kei Toma Ryutaro Nakayama REP No8s Feinga Fakai* Pablo Matera Talifolofola Tangipa* Scrum-halves Shogo Nezuka Kenta Yamaji Azuma Doei Takuro Hojo Koki Miyasaka Taichi Takenaka Fly-halves Yuto Yohena Hayata Nakao Oh Gwang-tee* Manu Vunipola Riku Kitahara REP DEP	Centres Johnny Fa'auli Kaito Kawai Dawid Kellerman Fraser Quirk* Soki Watanabe Kyogo Okano Manase Havili* Wingers Tevita Li Larry Sulunga Naoki Motomura Fullbacks FC Du plessis Kengo Gunji Yoshikazu Fujita Haruhiko Uemura Tom Banks Yuta Matsuura Utility Backs Lomano Lava Lemeki
(c) Denotes team captain, Bold denotes player is internationally capped

Coaches

• John Sherratt: April 2008 – March 2010^[6]
• Danny Lee: May 2017 - May 2021^[7]
• Taihei Ueda: June 2023 – present^[8]
• Kieran Crowley: 2024 - onwards

See also

• Top League Challenge Series