Hanazono Kintetsu Liners rugby team are a Japanese rugby union team owned by Kintetsu Corporation which was founded in 1929. They have won the All-Japan Championship three times as an amateur team. Their home is at Hanazono Rugby Stadium in Higashiosaka, Japan, which was also opened in 1929.
Early in 2008 Kintetsu won promotion back to the Top League for the 2008-9 season, and it was announced that former All Blacks coach Peter Sloane would be head coach. After 3 years with Peter Sloane, Ryusuke Maeda become head coach in 2011.
The team rebranded as Hanazono Kintetsu Liners ahead of the rebranding of the Top League to the Japan Rugby League One in 2022.
Honours
All-Japan Championship
Champions: 1966, 1967, 1974
Runner-up: 1961(NHK Cup), 1963
Company Championship
Champions: 1953, 1956, 1957, 1961, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1974
Runner-up: 1948, 1951, 1955, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1963, 1965, 1973
History
Early Periods
In 1927, this team was founded by some employees of Osaka Denki Kido (called “Daiki”). And the team was confirmed as a company’s official sport club by the company in 1929. In the same year, Hanazono Rugby Stadium was founded by the company.
Before and during the World War II, there was no national tournament, which is well-organized to cover all company rugby teams in Japan. But they won the Osaka Company Rugby Tournament in 1936, and runner-up for three times.
After the World War II, the company name was changed to Kinki Nippon Railway (called “Kintetsu”). And the team was reformed in April 1946. Some members could come back to the team, but some of them could not come back from the war.
At that time, Heinai Tsuge joined the team. He was a player of Sentetsu(Chosen Government Railway) Rugby Club, who had been a leading team in the company rugby scene in the 1930s. Tsuge became a head coach and also a player in Kintetsu, and the team had grown up.
In 1947, they won the qualifying round of western Japan for the National Sports Festival of Japan (only 4 teams were qualified from over Japan, i.e. northern, eastern and western Japan plus Kyushu), and participated in the final rounds.
In 1948–1949 season, they also participated in the first national Company Rugby Football Championship, which consists of 4 teams from all over Japan. And won the runner-up.
Glorious 50s - 70s
In 1953–1954 season, they won the Company Championship for the first time. Including this first win, they won this title for 8 times and the runner-up for 9 times from 1948 to 1975.
Especially, they won the title in 1956–1957 season without allowing any score to all opponents in all four matches. This was called “shut-out champion”, and this record is not broken in any major rugby championships in Japan yet.
In March 1959, Kintetsu defeated British Columbia from Canada at a score of 16-9. This British Columbia team was called “Canadian national team” at that time in Japan. They had 8 games in Japan, and they lost only one game which was against Kintetsu.
In 1960–1961 season, the first NHK Cup was held, which decides the No. 1 rugby club in Japan. Before that, university teams had been stronger than company teams in Japan. But after the World War II, many company teams were restarted or founded newly, and the company rugby were growing up. So Japan Rugby Football Union organized the NHK cup for three times from this season, and changed it to All-Japan Rugby Football Championship from 1963–1964 season.
Kintetsu became runner-up in the NHK cup 1961-62. And they won the All-Japan Championship for 3 times (1966–67, 67-68, 74-75) and runner-up for 1 time (1963–64).
Yoshihiro Sakata had been playing for Kintetsu and Japan national team in those periods, and later, he enters the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2012.
In 1969–1970 season, Kintetsu won the Company Championship and got the right to participate in the seventh All-Japan Championship. But they declined to participate in the All-Japan Championship, because its schedule was overlapped with the second Asian Championship in Bangkok and almost half of Japanese national players were Kintetsu players.
The Company Championship had been knock-out system competition, and was developed to Japan Rugby Top League(JRTL) in 2003. But a nationwide round-robbin competition for the company rugby did not exist in Japan till the establishment of the Top League. Before the establishment of the Top League, regional leagues were held in several regions of Japan by round robbin system.