Sport Rugby union football Inaugural season 2004 Country Japan | Formerly known as Microsoft Cup Number of teams 4 | |
 | ||
Holders Panasonic Wild Knights (4th title)
(2016) | ||
The Top League Champions Cup, known as the Lixil Cup and previously the Microsoft Cup, is a rugby union knockout tournament held annually in Japan to determine the Top League championship title. The Top League is the highest level of rugby competition in Japan and is an industrial league that presently consists of sixteen teams, all owned by major companies. The building materials supplier Lixil Group is the current naming rights partner.
Contents
- Overall
- Tournaments
- 2017 onward Top League title
- 2014 to 2016 Lixil Cup and Top League title
- 2007 to 2009 Microsoft Cup and Top League title
- 2004 to 2006 Microsoft Cup separate Top League title
- References
Initially sponsored by Microsoft Japan, the knockout tournament was first contested by the top eight teams from the Top League in 2004. It was considered a separate competition to the Top League for the first three seasons but was officially integrated for the 2006–07 season. The number of teams was also cut to four to give a format of two semi-finals and a final, and from that time onward until the 2016–17 season the winner of the knockout cup was recognised as the Top League champion.
There were no title-play-offs in 2016–17, and the team on top of the league after the round-robin stage won the Top League title.
Overall
Summary totals for all Top League championships up to and including 2016:
Notes:
1 The Panasonic Wild Knights summary includes results for the Sanyo Wild Knights from 2003–2012.
* NEC won the 2004 Microsoft Cup but Kobe Steel was the Top League champion. These were separate competitions prior to 2007.
^ The 2004 Kobe Steel and Sanyo (Panasonic) semi-final appearances are included, although that cup was not part of the championship.
+ Yamaha was 3rd and Suntory 4th in the 2003–04 Top League championship, but these results are not counted as semi-final appearances.
Tournaments
Teams listed are those that qualified from the Top League for the title play-offs in each season, or the top four teams where there were no play-offs. Results of the play-offs are written so that the score of the team in each row is mentioned first.
2017 onward: Top League title
Unlike previous seasons, there were no title-play-offs, and the team on top of the league after the round-robin stage was crowned the Top League title winner. The top three teams also progressed to the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship.
2014 to 2016: Lixil Cup and Top League title
From the 2013–14 season, the Top League tournament was contested by sixteen teams. The top four teams from the league competition (or the top eight in 2016) advanced to the play-offs to compete for the Lixil Trophy and Top League Championship.
2007 to 2009: Microsoft Cup and Top League title
For the 2006–07 season the tournament was expanded to fourteen teams and the Top League and Microsoft Cup competitions were combined. Only the top four teams on the regular season table progressed to title play-offs and the winner of the knockout competition was awarded both the Microsoft Cup and the Top League title.
Video referee (TMO) decisions were introduced for the 2009 Cup series. The naming rights partnership with Microsoft for the knockout competition ended after the 2009 Cup final.
2004 to 2006: Microsoft Cup (separate Top League title)
For the first three seasons the competition format was a single round-robin tournament contested by twelve teams, with the team finishing top of the table winning the Top League title. The Microsoft Cup was a separate knockout competition for the top eight teams in the league.
Notes: