Japan's Sunwolves endured a rocky debut season in Super Rugby, posting only one win. As they head into their second campaign, the Sunwolves' see the glass as half-full, because the only way left to go is up.
The team announced 36 of their players for the 2017 season at a Tokyo news conference on Monday. Eighteen, including Japan national team stars scrum-half Fumiaki Tanaka and speedy back Kotaro Matsushima, are newcomers to the team.
Closely working with the national team to help prepare the Brave Blossoms for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan and beyond is one of the Sunwolves' major objectives.
With that in mind, 21 of the 36 players named in the Sunwolves squad earned caps for Japan during its international test series last month. Eleven were on the Japanese squad that competed at the 2015 World Cup in England.
Eighteen players, including hooker Shota Horie, lock Hitoshi Ono and stand-off Yu Tamura, returned from last year's Sunwolves team.
Horie, the captain last year, said he received offers from other Super Rugby clubs but chose to remain with the Sunwolves in order to improve the team, which he believes will help the development of the national team.
Lock Liaki Moli, flanker Edward Quirk and backs Derek Carpenter and Riaan Viljoen will don Sunwolves jerseys again as non-Japanese players.
Sunwolves CEO Yuji Watase hinted the team might add more players later.
Some of the core players from last year's Sunwolves squad, such as popular winger Akihito Yamada, fly-half Tusi Pisi and flanker Andrew Durutalo, weren't listed, but Horie thinks it's a big plus for the Sunwolves to have acquired Tanaka and Matsushima. Tanaka played for the Highlanders, of New Zealand, for the past four seasons, while Matsushima was with the Rebels last year.
"That's big," said the 30-year-old Horie. "I have trust in them and am excited to have them. It's promising."
The Sunwolves, who posted a dismal 1-1-13 record in 2016 while playing in the Africa 1 Conference of the South African Group, will open their second season against the reigning-champion Hurricanes on Feb. 25 at Prince Chichibu Memorial Ground. They will play three more games at Chichibu and three others in Singapore as their home contests.
"We faced a lot of adversity last year," said Sunwolves head coach Filo Tiatia, who was an assistant under Mark Hammett last season. "And we are going to have to do that again."
Horie said he wanted to win more than once during the upcoming season, adding that "the team would like to stay positive," even when it struggles.
"Unless you stay positive, you won't generate anything," he said. "That's the culture we had inside our team last year and we would like to maintain that for this year as well."
