Last weekend marked the return of two leading rugby competitions, with the Investec Champions Cup and Japan Rugby League One both commencing their 2023/24 seasons. The two tournaments each drew impressive crowds on their opening weekends, with Japanese rugby’s continued growth showcased in the latest attendance figures.
The overall attendance for the six matches across Japan’s first division, wasn’t far behind the overall fan spectatorship for the 12 Champions Cup matches from the same weekend. A statement from the JRLO demonstrated the league’s hotly anticipated return.
“The return of Japan Rugby League One has been met with enthusiasm by Japanese fans, with overall attendance across the six matches in Division One only narrowly below that achieved by the first round of last weekend’s European Champions Cup. The overall turnout was 70,575 in Japan, at an average of 11,762. According to official figures posted on the ERC website, the latter drew an average attendance of 13,079 across its 12 Champions Cup matches.”
These impressive statistics presents the strength of the Japanese rugby market, with the league welcoming a host of top international talents ahead of the 2023/24 season. The likes of All Blacks Beauden Barrett, Aaron Smith, Richie Mo’unga and Sam Cane have all signed for new JRLO clubs, with Rugby World Cup winning Springboks Pieter-Steph du Toit, Faf de Klerk, Cheslin Kolbe and Damien de Allende also calling the league home. There is also a strong Wallabies contigent, as the likes of Marika Koroibete and Samu Kerevi tear up the pitch.
The JRLO’s statement continued, and highlighted additional figures on how the league had a better fan attendance than the opening weekend of the EPCR Challenge Cup. The statement then highlighted the stand out fixture of round one, and the impressive ticket sales that passed through the turnstiles.
“While 57,078 attended nine matches in the second tier European Challenge Cup, at an average of 6342 per game. The highest turnout in League One came at Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium, the spiritual home of the game in Japan, where over 18,000 people attended the semi-final replay from last season’s competition between Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath and Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay.
This figured was bettered by just three Champions Cup venues, each of them historic bastions of the European game, at Welford Road in Leicester (19,439), Thomond Park in Limerick, Munster (18,905), and Stade Ernest-Wallon in Toulouse (18,705).
“The crowd in Tokyo was higher than the attendance at the replay of last year’s European Champions Cup final between La Rochelle and Leinster, which saw 16,700 fans attend the game at Stade Marcel-Deflandre in La Rochelle. It was also higher than the largest crowd for the Challenge Cup, where 13,385 fans turned out in Clermont.
“With the combined overall attendance for matches in the first two seasons of League One surpassing one million last term, 42,000 of whom attended the final at the National Stadium, Japan Rugby League One officials have set a target of achieving a first million-strong seasonal attendance in the competition’s third edition.”
Japan Rugby League One Chief of Operations Hajime Shoji welcomed the strong attendance and is confident the third edition of the competition will be the best yet.
“The season has started with the fans full of enthusiasm (for Japan Rugby League One),” Mr Shoji said.
“The star players from overseas such as New Zealand and South Africa, in collaboration with Japanese players, are creating real excitement for rugby fans in Japan.
“Fans feel as if there are Rugby World Cup games in front (of them) every weekend.
“We would like to keep the momentum going to realise even greater fan engagement than we have had in our first two seasons.”