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| Full name | Mie Honda Heat | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Union | Japan Rugby Football Union | ||
| Nickname | Heat | ||
| Founded | 1960 | ||
| Location | Suzuka, Mie,Japan | ||
| Ground | Suzuka Sports Garden (Capacity: 12,000) | ||
| Chairman | Takanobu Ito | ||
| Coach | Kieran Crowley | ||
| League(s) | Japan Rugby League One, Division Two | ||
| 2022 | 2nd Lost promotion/relegation match | ||
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| Official website | |||
| www | |||
Mie Honda Heat is a Japanese rugby union team based inSuzuka City,Mie Prefecture,Japan. The owner of the club isHonda Motor. (Suzuka is known for theSuzuka Circuit and the presence of car companies. Conveniently, the team uses Suzuka to jog on as part of their training programme.)
They play in theJapan 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 asMie Honda Heat ahead of the rebranding of the Top League as theJapan Rugby League One in 2022.[1]
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'sTop 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 ZealanderJohn Sherratt, Honda Heat was promoted. The team played one Top League season in2009–10 before being demoted and another in2011–12 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 the2015–16 season of Top League, finishing at 11th place.[2] So the team stayed foranother term, this time ending the tournament at place 16th of 16 and being relegated to the newly introduced second-tierTop Challenge League.[3]
The season 2017–18 was played as a round-robin tournament, the Heats managing to win and become promoted automatically for the2018–19 Top League season, back to first tier status.[4]
The current Mie Honda Heat squad for the 2025–26 season is:[5]
| Mie Honda Heat squad | ||
|---|---|---|
Props
Hookers Locks | Flankers No8s Scrum-halves Fly-halves | Centres Wingers Fullbacks Utility Backs |
| (c) Denotes team captain,Bold denotes player is internationally capped |
John Sherratt: April 2008 – March 2010[6]Danny Lee: May 2017 - May 2021[7]
Taihei Ueda: June 2023 – present[8]Kieran Crowley: 2024 - onwards| Governing body | |||||||||||
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| National teams |
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| Competitions |
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