2016–17 Top League
| 2016–17 Top League | |
|---|---|
| Countries |
 Japan
|
| Date | 26 August 2016 – 14 January 2017 |
| Champions | Suntory Sungoliath |
| Runners-up | Yamaha Júbilo |
| Relegated | Honda Heat |
| Matches played | 120 |
| Attendance | 584,640 (average 4,872 per match) |
| Top point scorer | Kosei Ono (187) |
| Top try scorer | Takaaki Nakazuru (17) |
|
← 2015–16
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 will be played on 14 January 2017.
The only change to the make-up of the league was the Challenge One winner Munakata Sanix Blues replacing NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes.
The regular season saw all 16 teams competing in a round-robin style tournament where they played each team in the league once.
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.
Source: itsrugby.co.uk
• 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 2017–18 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).
If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
• Difference between points for and against
• Total number of points for
• Number of matches won
• Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams
• Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled
The following matches were played during the 2016–17 Top League competition:
Hino Red Dolphins, Kyuden Voltex and Mitsubishi 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.
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