| 2006–07 Top League | |
|---|---|
| Countries |  Japan |
| Date | October 2006 – February 2007 |
| Champions | Toshiba Brave Lupus |
The2006–07 Top League was the fourth season ofJapan's domesticrugby union competition, theTop League. The league was expanded to from 12 to 14 teams for the 2006–07 season.
The top four teams in the league played in theMicrosoft Cup which was officially integrated into the league from this season as the "Top League Play-off Tournament Microsoft Cup". The title was won byToshiba Brave Lupus which also won theAll-Japan Championship.
Coca-Cola West Red Sparks andIBM Big Blue were promoted to the league, bringing the number of teams from 12 to 14.
| Team | Region |
|---|---|
| Coca-Cola West Red Sparks | Fukuoka, Kyushu |
| Fukuoka Sanix Blues | Fukuoka, Kyushu |
| IBM Big Blue | Chiba, Kanto |
| Kobelco Steelers | Hyogo, Kansai |
| Kubota Spears | Chiba, Kanto |
| NEC Green Rockets | Chiba, Kanto |
| Ricoh Black Rams | Tokyo, Kanto |
| Sanyo Wild Knights | Gunma, Kanto |
| Secom Rugguts | Sayama, Saitama |
| Suntory Sungoliath | Tokyo, Kanto |
| Toshiba Brave Lupus | Tokyo, Kanto |
| Toyota Verblitz | Aichi, Tokai |
| World Fighting Bull | Kobe, Kansai |
| Yamaha Jubilo | Shizuoka, Tokai |
| Top League Table | ||||||||||||||
| Club | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points For | Points Against | Points Difference | Try Bonus | Losing Bonus | Points | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toshiba Brave Lupus | 13 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 502 | 234 | 268 | 11 | 1 | 60 | |||
| 2 | Suntory Sungoliath | 13 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 545 | 161 | 384 | 10 | 2 | 56 | |||
| 3 | Yamaha Jubilo | 13 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 379 | 306 | 73 | 5 | 1 | 48 | |||
| 4 | Toyota Verblitz | 13 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 448 | 267 | 181 | 8 | 3 | 47 | |||
| 5 | Sanyo Wild Knights | 13 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 525 | 321 | 204 | 8 | 3 | 43 | |||
| 6 | Kobelco Steelers | 13 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 360 | 306 | 54 | 8 | 2 | 42 | |||
| 7 | NEC Green Rockets | 13 | 7 | 0 | 6 | 281 | 321 | -40 | 7 | 3 | 38 | |||
| 8 | Kubota Spears | 13 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 385 | 402 | -17 | 5 | 1 | 30 | |||
| 9 | Fukuoka Sanix Blues | 13 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 281 | 423 | -142 | 4 | 2 | 28 | |||
| 10 | Coca-Cola West Red Sparks | 13 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 267 | 368 | -101 | 4 | 1 | 21 | |||
| 11 | Ricoh Black Rams | 13 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 233 | 371 | -138 | 3 | 2 | 21 | |||
| 12 | IBM Big Blue | 13 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 241 | 503 | -262 | 3 | 1 | 16 | |||
| 13 | Secom Rugguts | 13 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 255 | 449 | -194 | 3 | 3 | 14 | |||
| 14 | World Fighting Bull | 13 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 211 | 481 | -270 | 2 | 1 | 7 | |||
• The top 4 teams qualified for thetitle play-offs. | ||||||||||||||
Four points for a win, two for a draw, one bonus point for four tries or more (BP1) and one bonus point for losing by seven or less (BP2). | ||||||||||||||
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion with:Results Rd 1-13 (sourcetop-league.jp). You can help byadding to it.(November 2013) |
The top four teams in the league were Toshiba, Suntory, Yamaha, and Toyota. They played in theMicrosoft Cup (2007) knock-out tournament to fight it out for the Top league title, which was officially integrated into the league from this season as the "Top League Play-off Tournament Microsoft Cup".
The cup was won byToshiba Brave Lupus which also won theAll-Japan Championship.
| 28 January 2007 | Toshiba Brave Lupus | 38–35 | Toyota Verblitz | Chichibu,Tokyo | ||
| 14:00 |
| 28 January 2007 | Yamaha Jubilo | 39–40 | Suntory Sungoliath | Hanazono | ||
| 14:00 |
| 4 February 2007 | Toshiba Brave Lupus | 14–13 | Suntory Sungoliath | Chichibu,Tokyo | ||
| 14:00 |
Kyuden Voltex andMitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars won promotion to the2007–08 Top League via the 2007 Top League Challenge Series, whileHonda Heat andKintetsu Liners progressed to thepromotion play-offs.
Two promotion/relegation matches(Irekaesen) were played with the winners qualifying for the2007–08 Top League.
The 11th placed team from the Top League played against the 1st placed team from Challenge 2. The 12th placed team from the Top League played against the 3rd placed team from Challenge 1.
| 12 February 2007 | IBM Big Blue | 29–29 | Kintetsu Liners | |||
| 14:00 |
| 12 February 2007 | Ricoh Black Rams | 43–24 | Honda Heat | |||
| 14:00 |
So IBM (despite only obtaining a draw against Kinetsu), and Ricoh remained in the Top League for 2007–08.