Toyota Industries Shuttles

Toyota Industries Shuttles
豊田自動織機シャトルズ
Union Japan Rugby Football Union
Nickname(s) Shuttles
Founded 1984
Location Aichi, Mizuho
Ground(s) Mizuho Rugby Stadium (Capacity: 15,000)
Chairman Jun Matsuda
Coach(es) Masaya Niu
2017–18 12th
Team kit
Toyota Sports
Football Basketball (Men's) Basketball (Men's)
Basketball (Men's) Basketball (Men's) Basketball (Men's)
Basketball (Women's) Basketball (Women's) Basketball (Women's)
Volleyball (Men's) Volleyball (Men's) Baseball
Volleyball (Women's) Volleyball (Women's) Sailing
Handball Handball Handball
Handball Rugby union Rugby union
Wrestling Racing

Toyota Industries Shuttles (also called Toyota Jido Shokki as distinct from Toyota, which was renamed Toyota Verblitz) is a Japanese rugby team owned by Toyota Industries. They were promoted to Japan's top-flight league Top League for the first time in the 2010-11 season. Its home base is Kariya City.

Name and colours

The team name "Shuttles" derives from a part used in the Non-Stop Shuttle Change Toyoda Automatic Loom (for weaving fabrics), invented by Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Industries.

The team and plays in a sky blue jersey with white shorts and sky blue socks.

History

The Toyota Industries rugby team was founded in 1984. In the late 1990s, the team played in the Kansai League and competed in the Companies National Tournament. From 2003–04, Toyota Industries competed in the West Regional League.

Toyota Industries gained promotion to the Top League for the first time in 2010-11, but only stayed up for one season.

Under Australian coach Tai McIsaac, Toyota Shokki defeated Fukuoka Sanix Blues in a promotion-relegation match in 2013 to gain entry to the 2013–14 Top League.

Stadium

Toyota Shokki Kariya ground

Toyota Shokki play their Top League home games at Mizuho Rugby Stadium in Nagoya. The stadium holds 15,000 people and was originally built in 1941. It has also been used to host international rugby matches, including for the 2014 Asian Five Nations.

The team trains at the Toyota Industries ground in Kariya.

Current squad

The current Toyota Industries Shuttles squad is:[1]

Toyota Industries Shuttles squad

Props

  • Japan Hirotaka Hirabara
  • Japan Hikaru Ishizawa
  • Japan Naoki Kawamata
  • Japan Ken Mizuno
  • Japan Yusuke Nagae
  • Japan Yuki Namioka
  • Japan Nobuhisa Takahashi
  • Japan Hyosuke Watanabe
  • Japan Yusuke Yamada

Hookers

  • Japan Shota Hirono
  • Japan Hiroki Murakawa
  • Japan Tomoya Watanabe

Locks

  • Japan Toshiki Fujii
  • Japan Yuji Hasegawa
  • Japan Tsuyoshi Matsuoka
  • Japan Taishi Nakamura
  • Australia Cadeyrn Neville

Loose Forwards

Scrum-halves

  • New Zealand Jono Hickey
  • Japan Takahiro Kimura
  • Japan Daiki Konishi
  • Japan Ryoya Shimohira

Fly-halves

Centres

Wingers

  • Japan Siosifa Lisala
  • Japan Kento Masui
  • Japan Takashi Toyomae

Fullbacks

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

Former players

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Toyota Industries Shuttles: The Team" (in Japanese). Toyota Industries. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
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