2010–11 Top League
Kicker Masakazu Irie of Sanyo, the 2010–11 winners.
Countries	Japan
Date	3 September 2010 – 10 January 2011
Champions	Sanyo Wild Knights (1st title)
Runners-up	Suntory Sungoliath

The 2010–11 Top League was the eighth season of Japan's domestic rugby union competition, the Top League. The Sanyo Wild Knights defeated Suntory Sungoliath 28-23 in the final of the Microsoft Cup to claim their first Top League title.

The Top League is a semi-professional competition which is at the top of the national league system in Japan, with promotion and relegation between the next level down.

Changes

• Toyota Industries Shuttles and NTT Communications Shining Arcs were promoted to the Top League, replacing Honda Heat and Kyuden Voltex who were relegated.

Teams

Regular season

Final standings

Top League Table
	Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Difference	Try Bonus	Losing Bonus	Points
1	Toshiba Brave Lupus	13	11	0	2	483	210	+273			57
2	Sanyo Wild Knights	13	11	0	2	545	163	+382			55
3	Toyota Verblitz	13	11	0	2	446	261	+185			55
4	Suntory Sungoliath	13	10	0	3	395	279	+22			36
5	Kobelco Steelers	13	7	0	6	395	279	+116			36
6	NEC Green Rockets	13	7	0	6	276	332	−37			34
7	Ricoh Black Rams	13	6	0	7	364	389	−25			32
8	Fukuoka Sanix Blues	13	5	1	7	357	472	−115			32
9	Kintetsu Liners	13	6	0	7	277	344	−67			31
10	Coca-Cola West Red Sparks	13	5	0	8	250	438	−188			28
11	Yamaha Jubilo	13	5	0	8	327	504	−177			27
12	NTT Shining Arcs	13	4	0	9	271	343	−72			24
13	Kubota Spears	13	1	1	11	224	443	−219			11
14	Toyota Industries Shuttles	13	1	0	12	229	558	−329			11
• The top 4 teams qualified to the title play-offs.  • The top 4 teams also qualified for entry into the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship.  • Teams 5 to 10 qualified to the wildcard play-offs for entry into the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship.  • Teams 11 and 12 went through to the promotion and relegation play-offs against regional challengers.  • Teams 13 and 14 were automatically relegated to the regional leagues for 2011–12.
[1] Four points for a win, two for a draw, one bonus point for four tries or more (BP1) and one bonus point for losing by seven or less (BP2). If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:  • Difference between points for and against  • Total number of points for  • Number of matches won  • Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams  • Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled

Title play-offs

Top 4 sides of the regular season competed in the Microsoft Cup (2011) knock out tournament to fight for the Top League title. The top 4 teams of 2008–09 were Toshiba Brave Lupus, Sanyo Wild Knights, Toyota Verblitz and Suntory Sungoliath.

Wildcard play-offs

The two second round winners qualified for the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship.

Top League Challenge Series

Honda Heat and NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes won promotion to the 2011–12 Top League via the 2010–11 Top League Challenge Series, while Canon Eagles and Kyuden Voltex progressed to the promotion play-offs.

Promotion and relegation play-offs

Two promotion/relegation matches (Irekaesen) were played. The Top League teams ranked 12th and 11th played-off against the Challenge 1 teams ranked 3rd and 4th respectively, for the right to be included in the Top League for the following season.

So NTT and Yamaha remained in the Top League for the following season.

Top Ten Points Scorers

End-of-season awards

References

External links

• 2010–11 draw and Match Attendance
• Team Profiles (Japanese)
• Top League official site (Japanese)
• Top League video digest Archived 2010-07-26 at the Wayback Machine
• Table (Japanese)