Coca-Cola Red Sparks

Coca-Cola Red Sparks
コカ・コーラレッドスパークス
Full name Coca-Cola Red Sparks
Union Japan Rugby Football Union
Nickname(s) Red Sparks
Founded 1966
Location Fukuoka, Japan
Ground(s) Level-5 Stadium
Chairman 22,563
Coach(es) Earl Va'a
Captain(s) Timothy Lafaele
League(s) Top League
2017–18 14th
1st kit
2nd kit

The Coca-Cola Red Sparks are a Japanese company-owned rugby union team based in Fukuoka city, Kyūshū. The coach is currently Shogo Mukai (appointed April 1, 2004), the former Japan national rugby union team coach during the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup.

The team was initially founded as Kitakyushu Coca-Cola and then changed its name to Coca-Cola West Japan.

The team won promotion to the expanded Top League of 14 teams at the end of the 2005–06 season, and was renamed Coca-Cola West Red Sparks. The club motto is "Have Guts Have Glory" and their slogan for 2006 season: "Always Attack & Aggressive". In the fourth Top League (2006–07) the team came 10th, with four wins, nine losses and 21 points. It therefore did not need to take part in any play-offs. Sanix, the local rivals, came ninth.

The team is now (2013) one of two teams from Kyūshū in the Top League. The other one is Kyuden Voltex. The team mascot's name is Sparky.

In 2014, the team was renamed the Coca-Cola Red Sparks.

Current squad

The current Coca-Cola Red Sparks squad is:[1]

Coca-Cola Red Sparks squad

Props

  • Japan Masahiro Hibino
  • Japan Yuichiro Hosono
  • Japan Ryoma Kuhara
  • Japan Yasuo Saruwatari
  • Tonga Elone Takitaki
  • Japan Tomohiro Tanaka
  • Japan Genki Tokushige
  • Japan Daisuke Yamashita

Hookers

  • Japan Mitsumasa Harayama
  • Japan Kosetsu Kawachi
  • Japan Atsuro Nakamura

Locks

  • New Zealand Mark Abbott
  • Japan Shuhei Kawashita
  • Japan Shuichi Kinoshita
  • Japan Ryoma Nishimura
  • Japan Naoto Osajima

Loose Forwards

  • New Zealand Johan Bardoul
  • Japan Hiroki Hanada
  • New Zealand Solomon King
  • Japan Yuuksaku Kuwazuru
  • Japan Ataru Nishikawa
  • Japan Hideaki Suzuki
  • Japan Masakazu Toyota
  • New Zealand Joe Tupe
  • Japan Kota Yamashita

Scrum-halves

  • Japan Shota Egashira
  • Japan Genta Hoshino
  • Japan Hisanori Mimata
  • Japan Masafumi Tanabe

Fly-halves

Centres

  • Japan Kohei Ishigaki
  • Japan Naoki Sarugaku
  • Japan Yoshitsumi Shimora
  • Japan Will Tupou
  • Japan Junshi Yamakita
  • Japan Youji Yamamoto

Wingers

  • Japan Yatumonji Masakazu
  • Japan Kameli Soejima
  • Japan Shotaro Tsuoka

Fullbacks

  • Japan Kentaro Kamata
  • Japan Arata Nanri
  • New Zealand Daniel Peters
  • Japan Taichi Yoshizawa
(c) Denotes team captain, Bold denotes player is internationally capped

Former

Coaches

Home ground

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Coca-Cola Red Sparks: The Team". Coca-Cola Red sparks (in Japanese). Retrieved 25 February 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.