2023–24 Japan Rugby League One – Division 1

2023–24 Japan Rugby League One – D1
Countries	Japan
Number of teams	12
Date	9 December 2023 – 26 May 2024
Champions	Brave Lupus Tokyo
Promoted	Mie Heat
Relegated	Hanazono Liners
Matches played	106
Attendance	972,434 (average 9,174 per match)
Highest attendance	56,486 (Saitama Wild Knights vs. Brave Lupus Tokyo, 26 May 2024)
Top point scorer	Bryn Gatland (217)
Top try scorer	Malo Tuitama (15)
Official website
league-one.jp/en

The 2023–24 Japan Rugby League One – Division 1 season is the thirteenth top flight league season played from December 2023 through to May 2024, in the newly rebranded Japan Rugby League One. The competition consisted of twelve teams, including one promoted team from Division 2, the Mie Heat.

Format

The format and schedule was announced on 6 September 2023. It will consist of a round-robin fixture, before entering into a knockout style play-off for the final four teams. It featured two conferences (A, B). Teams in each conference played the teams in their respective conference twice (one at home, one away), and six matches against all the teams in the other conference, three being at home and three away. Each team played a total of sixteen seasonal fixtures, plus additional play-off matches, including relegation play-offs.

Teams and personnel

Club	Prefecture	Coach	Stadium	Capacity
Black Rams Tokyo リコーブラックラムズ東京	Tokyo	Peter Hewat	Komazawa Olympic Park Stadium	20,010
Brave Lupus Tokyo 東芝ブレイブルーパス東京	Tokyo	Todd Blackadder	Ajinomoto Stadium	49,970
Hanazono Liners 花園近鉄ライナーズ	Osaka	Yoshitake Mizuma	Hanazono Rugby Stadium	30,000
Kobe Steelers コベルコ神戸スティーラーズ	Hyōgo	Dave Rennie	Noevir Stadium Kobe	30,132
Mie Heat 三重ホンダヒート	Mie	Kieran Crowley	Mie Suzuka Sports Garden	12,000
Sagamihara DynaBoars 三菱重工相模原ダイナボアーズ	Kanagawa	Glenn Delaney	Sagamihara Gion Stadium	15,300
Saitama Wild Knights 埼玉パナソニックワイルドナイツ	Saitama	Robbie Deans	Kumagaya Rugby Ground	24,000
Shizuoka Blue Revs 静岡ブルーレヴズ	Shizuoka	Yuichiro Fujii	Yamaha Stadium	15,165
Spears Tokyo Bay クボタスピアーズ船橋・東京ベイ	Chiba	Frans Ludeke	Edogawa Stadium	6,950
Tokyo Sungoliath 東京サントリーサンゴリアス	Tokyo	Tanka Kiyonori	Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium	27,188
Toyota Verblitz トヨタヴェルブリッツ	Aichi	Ben Herring	Paloma Mizuho Rugby Stadium	15,000
Yokohama Eagles 横浜キヤノンイーグルス	Kanagawa	Keisuke Sawaki	NHK Spring Mitsuzawa Football Stadium	15,454

Steelers

Greater Tokyo Area

Blue Revs

Verblitz

Heat

Liners

Teams based in Tokyo:
Black Rams
Brave Lupus
DynaBoars
Eagles
Spears
Sungoliath
Wild Knights

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Locations of the 2023–24 Division 1 teams

Black Rams

Eagles

DynaBoars

Spears

Brave Lupus

Sungoliath

Wild Knights

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2023–24 Division 1 teams in Greater Tokyo Area

Ladder

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Saitama Wild Knights	16	16	0	0	747	275	+472	106	39	11	0	75	Qualification for Play-off Semi-finals
2	Brave Lupus Tokyo (C)	16	14	1	1	554	373	+181	81	49	7	0	65
3	Tokyo Sungoliath	16	10	1	5	584	425	+159	83	58	5	3	50
4	Yokohama Eagles	16	10	0	6	518	446	+72	75	63	6	3	49
5	Kobe Steelers	16	9	1	6	647	459	+188	89	59	5	2	45
6	Spears Tokyo Bay	16	8	1	7	554	447	+107	78	63	5	5	44
7	Toyota Verblitz	16	9	0	7	498	450	+48	72	59	5	2	43
8	Shizuoka Blue Revs	16	6	2	8	501	513	−12	71	76	3	2	33
9	Sagamihara DynaBoars	16	6	0	10	457	637	−180	62	93	0	3	27
10	Black Rams Tokyo (O)	16	3	0	13	321	503	−182	46	69	1	4	17	Qualification for relegation play-offs
11	Mie Heat (O)	16	1	0	15	242	744	−502	32	112	0	3	7
12	Hanazono Liners (R)	16	1	0	15	353	704	−351	51	102	0	2	6

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: league-one.jp
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Number of wins; 3) Point difference
(C) Champion; (O) Play-off winner(s); (R) Relegated

Fixtures

Each team will play five teams twice and six teams once for a total of sixteen home and away matches.

Home \ Away	BRT	BLT	HL	KS	MH	SDB	SWK	SBR	STB	TSG	TV	YE
Black Rams Tokyo	—						26–50	29–36			18–45
Brave Lupus Tokyo	40–33	—		40–40	40–12	41–19		43–30	24–20	36–27		27–7
Hanazono Liners	34–23	32–50	—		19–20	36–46	0–49		19–56		14–47	33–52
Kobe Steelers		39–46	60–17	—	80–15		18–28	63–19	34–38	27–36	57–22
Mie Heat	14–24	7–8		31–33	—	26–31		13–62	0–75	16–34		21–50
Sagamihara DynaBoars	24–31		30–29	14–43		—	21–81	53–45			20–34	35–40
Saitama Wild Knights	44–17	36–24	33–24			53–12	—			24–20	43–27	53–12
Shizuoka Blue Revs		20–59		26–30	43–14		19–45	—	31–31	25–29	24–8
Spears Tokyo Bay		20–22		39–29	61–24	28–34	22–55	19–23	—	26–52	27–31
Tokyo Sungoliath	62–0	19–26	34–14	44–36	60–10			31–31	26–45	—		35–37
Toyota Verblitz	15–8		47–30		54–7	54–40	7–40			38–39	—	35–31
Yokohama Eagles	24–8		66–26			43–19	14–43	34–17	26–29		24–22	—

Updated to match(es) played on 5 May 2024. Source: league-one.jp
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Promotion/Relegation play-offs

The relegation play-offs will take place in May 2024.

Overview

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
(D1) Black Rams Tokyo	95 – 21	Green Rockets Tokatsu (D2)	40 – 21	55 - 0
(D1) Mie Heat	72 – 63	Shuttles Aichi (D2)	57 – 39	15 - 24
(D1) Hanazono Liners	42 – 56	Urayasu D-Rocks (D2)	12 - 21	30 - 35

Matches

All times Japan Standard Time (JST) (UTC+9)

Black Rams Tokyo v Green Rockets Tokatsu

18 May 2024 14:30 JST (UTC+9)

Green Rockets Tokatsu	21–40	Black Rams Tokyo
	Report

Kashiwanoha Stadium Attendance: 5,062

25 May 2024 14:30 JST (UTC+9)

Black Rams Tokyo	55 - 0	Green Rockets Tokatsu
	Report

Sagamihara Gion Stadium Referee: 2,523

Mie Heat v Shuttles Aichi

18 May 2024 12:00 JST (UTC+9)

Shuttles Aichi	39–57	Mie Heat
	Report

Paloma Mizuho Rugby Stadium Attendance: 2,771

25 May 2024 12:00 JST (UTC+9)

Mie Heat	15 - 24	Shuttles Aichi
	Report

Mie Suzuka Sports Garden Attendance: 4,230

Hanazono Liners v Urayasu D-Rocks

18 May 2024 12:00 JST (UTC+9)

Urayasu D-Rocks	21–12	Hanazono Liners
	Report

Edogawa Stadium Attendance: 5,004

24 May 2024 19:00 JST (UTC+9)

Hanazono Liners	30 - 35	Urayasu D-Rocks
	Report

Hanazono Rugby Stadium Attendance: 7,883

Season play-offs

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 May – Aoyama (Tokyo)
	Saitama Wild Knights	20
					26 May – Shinjuku (Tokyo)
	Yokohama Eagles	17
					Saitama Wild Knights	20
	19 May – Aoyama (Tokyo)
					Brave Lupus Tokyo	24
	Brave Lupus Tokyo	28
	Tokyo Sungoliath	20
					Third place
					25 May – Aoyama (Tokyo)
					Tokyo Sungoliath	40
					Yokohama Eagles	33

Semi-finals

18 May 2024 14:05 JST (UTC+9)

Saitama Wild Knights	20–17	Yokohama Eagles
	Report

Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium Attendance: 15,464

19 May 2024 14:05 JST (UTC+9)

Brave Lupus Tokyo	28–20	Tokyo Sungoliath
	Report

Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium Attendance: 17,133

3rd Place Playoff

25 May 2024 12:05 JST (UTC+9)

Tokyo Sungoliath	40 - 33	Yokohama Eagles
	Report

Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium Attendance: 9,509

Final

26 May 2024 15:05 JST (UTC+9)

Saitama Wild Knights	20 - 24	Brave Lupus Tokyo
	Report

Japan National Stadium Attendance: 56,486

External links

• Japan Rugby League One site