Honda Heat

Honda Heat
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Full name	Honda Heat Rugby Football Club
Union	Japan Rugby Football Union
Founded	1960
Location	Suzuka, Mie, Japan
Ground(s)	Honda Active Land and Suzuka Sports Garden
Chairman	Takanobu Ito
Coach(es)	Tomoaki Fujimoto
League(s)	Top League
1st kit 2nd kit

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.)

They play in the Top League, the top tier of the 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.

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 in 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.

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.

Honda won the Top West A-League in 2014–15 and was promoted to the once again for the 2015–16 season of Top League.

Squad

The Honda Heat squad for 2015-16 Top League season:

(c) Denotes team captain, Bold denotes player is internationally capped

Coaches

• Tomoaki Fujimoto (? to present)
• John Sherratt (NZL): April 2008 – March 2010

See also

• Top League Challenge Series

External links

• Honda Heat Rugby - official site