Toyota Verblitz

Toyota Verblitz
トヨタ自動車ヴェルブリッツ

Full name	Toyota Verblitz
Union	Japan Rugby Football Union
Founded	1941
Location	Toyota, Aichi, Japan
Ground(s)	Mizuho Rugby Stadium (Capacity: 15,000)
Coach(es)	Filo Tiatia
Team kit

Toyota Verblitz is a Japanese rugby union team in the Top League. Verblitz is a conflation of verde (Portuguese for 'green') and blitz (German for 'lightning'). The team is owned by Toyota Jidosha (Toyota Motors) and is separate from, and not to be confused with, the Toyota Industries Shuttles rugby team, owned by Toyota Industries. They share Toyota Stadium in the city of Toyota, Aichi with the football club Nagoya Grampus which also used to be owned by Toyota Motors.

Slogan for 2006 season: 克己　Kokki (Self-Control)

Honours

• All-Japan Championship
  • Champions: 1969, 1968, 1987
  • Runner-up: 2007

Results

Verblitz (surprisingly given the team's pedigree) failed to make the cut for the first season of the Top League (2003-4) but entered the Top League in the second season and were a contender for the second Microsoft Cup. They lost the Japan Championship final on February 27, 2005 to NEC Green Rockets 13-17.

In August 2005 Verblitz beat Newcastle Falcons at home. On February 12, 2006 they lost to Waseda University RFC in the Japan Championships, 24-28. This was the first time a Top League team had lost to a university team.

2015–16 Squad

The Toyota Verblitz squad for 2015-16 Top League season:^[1]

Props Yoto Ioki Yoshiki Nakamura Kazuto Sato Ruan Smith Yōsuke Takahashi Yuki Uchida Kohei Yoshida Hookers Yoshikatsu Hirosaka Tomoharu Kawanishi Ryuta Ueno Locks Sam Bernstrom Toshizumi Kitakawa Daijiro Nakamura Koichi Sugimoto Tomoaki Taniguchi Yuderyckdenys Thomas Francois Uys

Loose Forwards Taiyo Ando Tatsuya Araki Renaldo Bothma Ryo Fujii Kota Makihara Taufua Olive Wycliff Palu Kojiro Yoshida (c) Scrum-halves Ippei Asada Koki Hirano Takehito Namekawa Kohei Yuasa Fly-halves Ryota Kabashima Robbie Robinson Takaya Monji

Centres Derek Carpenter Daiji Hachiyaku Yuta Haruyama Taiki Masuda Silivenusi Taumoepeau Takayuki Yamauchi Steven Yates Wingers Masakatsu Hirosaka Seiyu Kohara Hiroki Mizuno Dai Ozawa Koji Wada Fullbacks Yuki Kido Kaoru Matsushita Yoshizumi Takeda

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

Former players

• Troy Flavell - lock (now back in New Zealand with the Blues)
• Tamaiti Horua - No. 8 (formerly Brumbies), now Western Force in 2008 season
• Orene Aii
• Filo Tiatia - No. 8 (now in Wales with the Ospreys}

References

1. "Toyota Verblitz: The Team" (in Japanese). Top League. Retrieved 24 August 2015.

External links

• Toyota Verblitz - official site