The Top Challenge League () was a professional second-tier rugby union competition in Japan. The Japan Rugby Football Union (JRF) created the Top League Challenge Series in 2003 in order to give teams playing in the second-tier regional leagues a pathway to progress to the top tier Top League. This became the Top Challenge League in 2017 when a second-tier league was introduced. The competition was disbanded following the creation of the fully-professional Japan Rugby League One (JRLO) ahead of 2022, with the Top League and Top Challenge League being absorbed together to form one three division tournament.
History
For the 2003–04 season, a Top League competition was created as the top-tier competition in Japan, consisting of twelve teams. All remaining teams were placed in one of three regional leagues, as follows:
Top East League, administered by the Japan East Rugby Football Union Top West League, administered by the Kansai Rugby Football Union Top Kyūshū League, administered by the Kyūshū Rugby Football Union
The Top League Challenge Series was introduced as a post-season competition for the leading teams from these three regional leagues to win promotion to the Top League for the following season.
In August 2016, the JRFU announced that the Top League Challenge Series would become a second-tier league from 2017 onwards, known as the Top Challenge League.
Format Between 2003–04 and 2016–17, the Top League Challenge Series consisted of two divisions – the Challenge 1 and the Challenge 2 series. The three teams that won the regional leagues progressed to the Challenge 1 series, while the runners-up progressed to the Challenge 2 series. In both divisions, teams played in a round-robin format to determine the final standings.
While the exact format varied from season to season, a number of top-placed teams in the Challenge 1 won automatic promotion to the next season's Top League each season, while the next-best teams qualified for promotion play-off matches against teams that finished towards the bottom of that season's Top League. The top teams from Challenge 2 would either qualify to the promotion play-off matches, or progress to the same season's Challenge 1 series.
Seasons Season Promoted Failed to win promotion 2004 IBM Big Blue, Toyota Verblitz Kyuden Voltex, Toyota Industries Shuttles 2005 Fukuoka Sanix Blues, Secom Rugguts Honda Heat, Toyota Industries Shuttles 2006 Coca-Cola West Red Sparks, IBM Big Blue Honda Heat, Kintetsu Liners, Kyuden Voltex, NTT Communications Shining Arcs 2007 Kyuden Voltex, Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars Honda Heat, Kintetsu Liners 2008 Kintetsu Liners, Yokogawa Musashino Atlastars Mazda Blue Zoomers, World Fighting Bull 2009 Honda Heat, Ricoh Black Rams Mazda Blue Zoomers, Toyota Industries Shuttles 2010 NTT Communications Shining Arcs, Toyota Industries Shuttles Mazda Blue Zoomers, Yokogawa Musashino Atlastars 2010–11 Honda Heat, NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes Canon Eagles, Kyuden Voltex 2011–12 Canon Eagles, Kyuden Voltex Kubota Spears, Toyota Industries Shuttles 2012–13 Coca-Cola West Red Sparks, Kubota Spears, Toyota Industries Shuttles (via play-off) Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars 2013–14 Fukuoka Sanix Blues Honda Heat, Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars, Yokogawa Musashino Atlastars 2014–15 Honda Heat Kamaishi Seawaves, Kyuden Voltex, Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars 2015–16 Munakata Sanix Blues (via play-off) Kyuden Voltex, Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars, Osaka Police 2016–17 NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes Hino Red Dolphins, Kyuden Voltex, Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars 2017 Honda Heat, Hino Red Dolphins (via play-off) Kyuden Voltex, Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars 2018 Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars (via play-off), NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes (via play-off) Kintetsu Liners, Kurita Water Gush 2019–20 colspan=2 2021 colspan=2
See also Top League Japan Company Rugby Football Championship
Notes
References
External links