| Countries: |  Japan |
| Champions: | Suntory Sungoliath |
| Runnersup: | Yamaha Júbilo |
| Relegated: | Honda Heat |
| Matches: | 120 |
| Attendance: | 584640 |
| Top Point Scorer: | Kosei Ono (187) |
| Top Try Scorer: | Takaaki Nakazuru (17) |
| Prevseason: | 2015–16 |
| Nextseason: | 2017–18 |
The 2016–17 Top League is the 14th season of Japan's domestic rugby union competition, the Top League. It kicked off on 26 August 2016 and the final round of league matches were played on 14 January 2017.[1]
The only change to the make-up of the league was the Challenge One winner Munakata Sanix Blues replacing NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes.[2]
| Team | Region | Coach | Captain | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canon Eagles | Machida, Tokyo, Kantō | Yoji Nagatomo | Yusuke Niwai | |
| Coca-Cola Red Sparks | Fukuoka, Kyushu | Akihiro Usui | Kouta Yamashita | |
| Suzuka, Mie | Tomoaki Fujimoto | Daisuke Konishi | ||
| Kintetsu Liners | Akira Tsuboi | Daiki Toyota | ||
| Kobelco Steelers | Kobe, Kansai | Daiki Hashimoto | ||
| Abiko, Chiba, Kantō | Frans Ludeke | Harumichi Tatekawa | ||
| Munakata, Fukuoka, Kyushu | Yuichiro Fujii | Eito Tamura | ||
| NEC Green Rockets |  Peter Russell | Sunao Takizawa | ||
| NTT Com Shining Arcs | Chiba, Chiba, Kantō | Rob Penney | Daisuke Kurihara | |
| Panasonic Wild Knights | Ota, Gunma, Kantō | Robbie Deans | Shota Horie | |
| Ricoh Black Rams | Tokyo, Kantō |  Damien Hill | Takeshi Mabuchi | |
| Suntory Sungoliath | Fuchū, Tokyo, Kantō | Keisuke Sawaki | Yutaka Nagare | |
| Toshiba Brave Lupus | Fuchū, Tokyo, Kantō | Teppei Tomioka | Michael Leitch | |
| Toyota Industries Shuttles | Aichi, Mizuho | Masaya Niu | Yuga Takada | |
| Toyota, Aichi, Tokai | Hiroshi Sugawara | Taiyo Ando | ||
| Yamaha Júbilo | Takanobu Horikawa | Takeshi Hino |
The regular season saw all 16 teams competing in a round-robin style tournament where they played each team in the league once.[3]
Unlike previous seasons, there were no title-play-offs, and the team on top of the league after the round-robin stages was crowned the champion. The top three teams progressed to the 54th All Japan Rugby Football Championship.
| Top League - League Stage | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points For | Points Against | Points Difference | Try Bonus | Losing Bonus | Points< | -- Team | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | TB | LB | Pts--> | |
| 1 | Suntory Sungoliath | 15 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 563 | 184 | +379 | 11 | 0 | 71 | |||||||||||
| 2 | Yamaha Júbilo | 15 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 580 | 208 | +372 | 11 | 0 | 67 | |||||||||||
| 3 | 15 | 13 | 0 | 2 | 579 | 268 | +311 | 9 | 1 | 62 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Kobelco Steelers | 15 | 10 | 0 | 5 | 473 | 328 | +145 | 7 | 1 | 48 | |||||||||||
| 5 | 15 | 9 | 0 | 6 | 336 | 292 | +44 | 4 | 1 | 41 | ||||||||||||
| 6 | Ricoh Black Rams | 15 | 8 | 0 | 7 | 390 | 362 | +28 | 4 | 4 | 40 | |||||||||||
| 7 | Canon Eagles | 15 | 8 | 0 | 7 | 379 | 336 | +43 | 2 | 3 | 37 | |||||||||||
| 8 | Toyota Verblitz | 15 | 7 | 0 | 8 | 353 | 332 | +21 | 4 | 4 | 36 | |||||||||||
| 9 | Toshiba Brave Lupus | 15 | 6 | 0 | 9 | 351 | 381 | −30 | 4 | 6 | 34 | |||||||||||
| 10 | NEC Green Rockets | 15 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 337 | 401 | −64 | 3 | 2 | 31 | |||||||||||
| 11 | Munakata Sanix Blues | 15 | 7 | 0 | 8 | 280 | 481 | −201 | 0 | 1 | 29 | |||||||||||
| 12 | Kubota Spears | 15 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 271 | 387 | −116 | 1 | 1 | 28 | |||||||||||
| 13 | Kintetsu Liners | 15 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 268 | 417 | −149 | 0 | 6 | 18 | |||||||||||
| 14 | Coca-Cola Red Sparks | 15 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 239 | 478 | −239 | 2 | 3 | 17 | |||||||||||
| 15 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 292 | 539 | −247 | 1 | 3 | 16 | ||||||||||||
| 16 | Honda Heat | 15 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 274 | 571 | −297 | 0 | 3 | 7 | |||||||||||
| Updated: 15 January 2017 Source: Teams 1 to 3 (Green background) advance to the 54th All Japan Rugby Football Championship. Teams 13 to 15 (Blue background) go on to the 2016–17 Top League relegation play-offs. Team 16 (Red background) will be automatically relegated to the 2017 Top Challenge League. 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). | ||||||||||||||||||||||
The following matches were played during the 2016–17 Top League competition:[4]
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See main article: 2016–17 Top League Challenge Series.
Hino Red Dolphins, Kyuden Voltex and Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars progressed to the promotion play-offs.
At the end of the season, there were three promotion/relegation play-offs for three places in the 2017–18 Top League. The teams ranked 13th, 14th and 15th in the Top League played off against the teams ranked 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the Top League Challenge 1.
Coca-Cola Red Sparks, Kintetsu Liners and Toyota Industries Shuttles qualified from the Top League relegation play-off zone, while Hino Red Dolphins, Kyuden Voltex and Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars qualified from Challenge 1.
The following matches were played in the series:
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