Japan’s Top League is one of professional rugby’s most unusual organizations. Even the term “professional” must be used somewhat loosely. Each Top League club operates under a financially lucrative corporation, causing critics to refer to it as a “corporate” league. The clubs, bearing colorful corporate eponyms –Kobelco Steelers, Toyota Verblitz, Panasonic Wild Knights, NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes, Suntory Sungoliath– are essentially company rugby teams, rather than bona fide professional institutions.
This corporate mold from which the Top League is shaped bares very little resemblance to any other competition in World Rugby. Yet, as we have seen in recent years, it’s becoming one of the most alluring leagues on the planet, especially for players from the tier one southern hemisphere nations.
Why the Top League?
Naturally, money is the ultimate driving force behind the Top League. In recent years Japan’s corporate clubs have lured in some of the biggest names in the game with promises of tasty pay packages, a chance to experience a vibrant new culture, and a rugby season that’s shorter and less physically demanding than leagues in the tier one nations; ostensibly, it sounds like a pretty good deal. However, said bonuses are balanced out by a serious difference in the quality of the competition.
Top League clubs can only have six foreign players in a matchday squad, so the remainder of the roster is typically composed of Japanese internationals, company employees, and alumni from Japan’s top rugby universities. It has a kind of amateur Sunday rugby club feel to it, which is belied by the hefty sums of money being thrown around and the odd famous face.
Quality issues notwithstanding, the influx of foreign players to the Top League exploded off the back of the 2018/19 season, while the Rugby World Cup did Japan’s rugby reputation no harm either. As we approach the 2019/20 season, which was pushed back to January due to this fall’s World Cup, a who’s who of southern hemisphere rugby royalty are joining the Japan Top League ranks.
Rising Suns, Rising Salaries
I can certainly empathize with the mass exodus to Japan. If I’m in the twilight of my career and I get offered unprecedented sums of money join a Japanese club while having to commit significantly less time and energy to the endeavor of being a professional rugby player, I’m sold (literally). Take Dan Carter for example. The 37-year-old Kiwi, and three-time World Rugby Player of the Year, moved to Kobe’s Kobelco Steelers in 2018 on a yearly salary of US $1.4 million. In New Zealand, this kind of money is not available for any player, of any kind, at any time. Period. The same goes for those plying their trade in South Africa and Australia. As such, a mass exodus from these nations to the land of the rising sun (and equally rising bank accounts), seems like a natural career progression.
The marquee Top League signings for 2020 mostly come from the ‘big three’ nations south of the equator. Kieran Read, who recently abdicated from the New Zealand All Blacks’ captaincy following a glittering career, is linking up with Toyota Verblitz. The Ozzy master of the breakdown, David Pocock, will be lining up for Saitama’s Panasonic Wild Knights. He’ll be joined by veteran Kiwi second row Sam Whitelock. Maverick Australian Quade Cooper and his former half-back partner Will Genia have signed with the second-tier Kintetsu Liners of Osaka. Age aside, these frivolous acquisitions certainly make the Top League a more interesting prospect in 2020.
And it’s not just the players who have cashed in. Some of the sport’s most venerated head coaches have also dipped their toes into Japan’s corporate rugby world, including Eddie Jones, Jamie Joseph, Robbie Deans, and Jake White. Next to follow suit is Steve Hansen, the man who guided New Zealand through some of its most extended periods of sporting dominance from 2011-2019. He will take over Toyota Verblitz for the 2020 season.
A typical coaching career has a far longer shelf life than a pro player, so a year or two in the Top League with big financial returns and less job pressure is a great way to recharge the batteries before returning to the big leagues. However, there is a sub-set of players making their way to Japan in the midst of their careers, for whom the face value benefits might not seem so obvious.
The Dreaded Cycle
In the wake of the 2019 Rugby World Cup, the conversation has been dominated by the concept of four-year cycles. Most tier one nations start building for one World Cup, the second the previous one culminates. Likewise, in the interest of international success, the same nations have implemented policies restricting the number of players in the national side who play for foreign clubs. These facets combined typically discourage younger players from playing club rugby abroad because of two inherent risks: they may not be available for international selection and when they return halfway through a World Cup cycle, they may be jostling for a place in the team that they had previously made their own. Yet an influx of young foreign talent to the Top league in 2020 shows a new wave of players taking the gamble in return for financial boosts.
Twenty-six-year-old Australian Samu Kerevi, one of the Australia Wallabies’ stars performers in Japan this fall, has been snagged by Tokyo-based Suntory Sungloiath. While 25-year-old Springbok Jesse Kriel is on his way to the Canon Eagles in the capital’s southwest suburbs, and 28-year-old Kiwi, Liam Squire is en route to the NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes of Osaka.
The four-year cycle paradigm in which international rugby seems to be locked has been heavily criticized. A brief hiatus in Japan could be an opportunity for younger players to temporarily free themselves of their World Cup shackles before returning rejuvenated to their native lands. Whether that comes to pass, only time will tell.
But as things stand, there is a bigger picture. Post-2020 and the Tokyo Sunwolves’ Super Rugby disbandment, the Top League will be the only major rugby competition featuring Japanese club teams (though plans for another competition are believed to be on the drawing board). If rugby in Japan is to stay relevant, they may need all the foreign help they can get.