Date: | 9 December 2023 – 26 May 2024 |
Teams: | 12 |
Champions: | Brave Lupus Tokyo |
Promoted: | Mie Heat |
Relegated: | Hanazono Liners |
Matches: | 106 |
Attendance: | 972434 |
Highest Attendance: | 56,486 (Saitama Wild Knights vs. Brave Lupus Tokyo, 26 May 2024) |
Broadcasters: | J Sports |
Website: | https://league-one.jp/en |
Prevseason: | 2022–23 |
Nextseason: | 2024–25 |
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,[1] in the newly rebranded Japan Rugby League One. The competition consisted of twelve teams, including one promoted team from Division 2, the Mie Heat.
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.[2]
Club | Prefecture | Coach | Stadium | Capacity | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Black Rams Tokyo | Tokyo | Peter Hewat | Komazawa Olympic Park Stadium | 20,010 | |
Brave Lupus Tokyo | Tokyo | Todd Blackadder | Ajinomoto Stadium | 49,970 | |
Hanazono Liners | 30,000 | ||||
Kobe Steelers | Dave Rennie | Noevir Stadium Kobe | 30,132 | ||
Mie Heat | Mie Suzuka Sports Garden | 12,000 | |||
Sagamihara DynaBoars | Kanagawa | Sagamihara Gion Stadium | 15,300 | ||
Saitama Wild Knights | Robbie Deans | Kumagaya Rugby Ground | 24,000 | ||
Shizuoka Blue Revs | Shizuoka | Yuichiro Fujii | Yamaha Stadium | 15,165 | |
Spears Tokyo Bay | Chiba | Frans Ludeke | Edogawa Stadium | 6,950 | |
Tokyo Sungoliath | Tokyo | Tanka Kiyonori | Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium | 27,188 | |
Toyota Verblitz | Paloma Mizuho Rugby Stadium | 15,000 | |||
Yokohama Eagles | Kanagawa | Keisuke Sawaki | NHK Spring Mitsuzawa Football Stadium | 15,454 |
Each team will play five teams twice and six teams once for a total of sixteen home and away matches.[3]
The relegation play-offs will take place in May 2024.
All times Japan Standard Time (JST) (UTC+9)
Black Rams Tokyo v Green Rockets Tokatsu
Mie Heat v Shuttles Aichi
Hanazono Liners v Urayasu D-Rocks
Bracket