Top Challenge League
The Top Challenge League was a professional rugby union competition in Japan. It was the second-highest level of rugby competition in the country and is a companies league; all the teams are owned by major companies and the players are generally employees of their company. The Japan [Rugby Football Union] created the Top League Challenge Series in 2003 in order to give teams playing in the second-tier regional leagues a pathway to progress to the top tier Top League; this became the Top Challenge League in 2017 when a second-tier league was introduced. The competition was disbanded following the creation of the fully-professional Japan Rugby League One ahead of 2022, with the Top League and Top Challenge League being absorbed together to form one three division tournament.
History
For the 2003–04 season, a Top League competition was created as the top-tier competition in Japan, consisting of twelve teams. All remaining teams were placed in one of three regional leagues, as follows:- Top East League, administered by the Japan East Rugby Football Union
- Top West League, administered by the Kansai Rugby Football Union
- Top Kyūshū League, administered by the Kyūshū Rugby Football Union
In August 2016, the JRFU announced that the Top League Challenge Series would become a second-tier league from 2017 onwards, known as the Top Challenge League.
Format
Between 2003–04 and 2016–17, the Top League Challenge Series consisted of two divisions – the Challenge 1 and the Challenge 2 series. The three teams that won the regional leagues progressed to the Challenge 1 series, while the runners-up progressed to the Challenge 2 series. In both divisions, teams played in a round-robin format to determine the final standings.While the exact format varied from season to season, a number of top-placed teams in the Challenge 1 won automatic promotion to the next season's Top League each season, while the next-best teams qualified for promotion play-off matches against teams that finished towards the bottom of that season's Top League. The top teams from Challenge 2 would either qualify to the promotion play-off matches, or progress to the same season's Challenge 1 series.
Seasons
The following Top League Challenge Series were played as post-season play-offs:The following Top Challenge League seasons were played as a round-robin league: