The Kobelco Kobe Steelers are a Japanese rugby union team owned by Kobe Steel, and based in Kobe. They were the first ever Top League champions when the League started in the 2003-2004 season. The team rebranded as Kobelco Kobe Steelers ahead of the rebranding of the Top League to the Japan Rugby League One in 2022.[1]

Honours

Personnel

Current management team

Position Name Nationality
Director of rugby Wayne Smith  New Zealand
Head coach Dave Rennie  New Zealand
Assistant coach Mike Blair  Scotland

Current squad

The Kobelco Kobe Steelers squad for the 2023-24 season is:[2]

Kobelco Kobe Steelers squad

Props

Hookers

Locks

Flankers

No8s

Scrum-halves

Fly-halves

Centres

Wingers

Fullbacks

Utility Backs

  • (cc) denotes team co-captains.
  • Bold denotes internationally capped.

Past players

  • Yuta Imamura (2007-19, 124 games) Centre, Japanese international (2006-13, 39 caps)
  • Itaru Taniguchi (2008-21, 148 games) Loose forward, Japanese international (2010-11, 10 caps)
  • Shoji Ito (2009-18, 104 games) Lock, Japanese international (2012-15, 36 caps)

Japanese players

Foreign players

References

  1. ^ "La nouvelle ligue japonaise s'appelle la Japan Rugby League One". Asie Rugby (in French). 16 July 2021. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  2. ^ "Kobe Steelers: Players" (in Japanese). Kobelco Kobe Steelers. 2024. Retrieved 12 December 2023.

External links