Asian Super Rugby franchise the Sunwolves have named a 39-man Super Rugby squad that will contest the 2016 Super Rugby season
Japanese site Kyodo News has reported that prop Takuma Asahara and Tasman Makos wing Viliami Lolohea have been included in the squad but wing Amanaki Lotoahea was dropped due to an injury.
Former Hurricanes coach and now Sunwolves coach Mark Hammett was forced to leave the squad for a personal matter last week but before he left he indicated that he was looking to add more players to his squad.
Hammett suggested that in particular he was looking to add depth at 13. This may have been due to the possibility of Akihito Yamada potentially leaving the squad in June for the Rio Olympics and could be why Lolohea was call up after Lotoahea’s injury
Hammett’s assistants have also been announced and Atsushi Tanabe will be an assistant coach in the role of backs and skills coach.
The Sunwolves begin their Super Rugby campaign at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground on Friday against the Johannesburg-based Lions.
Hammett’s mother passed away last week and he returned to New Zealand but it is not known yet whether he will be able to return in time for the Sunwolves first match.
Sunwolves 2016 Super Rugby squad
Head coach : Mark Hammett
Captain : Shota Horie
Takuma Asahara,
Ziun Gu,
Shohei Hirano,
Keita Inagaki,
Shinnosuke Kakinaga,
Masataka Mikami,
Koki Yamamoto,
Ryuhei Arita,
Shota Horie (c),
Takeshi Kizu,
Futoshi Mori,
Tim Bond,
Yoshiya Hosoda,
Shinya Makabe,
Liaki Moli,
Hitoshi Ono,
Kazuhiko Usami,
Taiyo Ando,
Andrew Durutalo,
Fa’atiga Lemalu,
Tomás Leonardi,
Tsuyoshi Murata,
Ed Quirk,
Atsushi Hiwasa,
Daisuke Inoue,
Kaito Shigeno,
Yuki Yatomi,
Tusi Pisi,
Yu Tamura,
Harumichi Tatekawa,
Derek Carpenter,
Mifiposeti Paea,
Ryohei Yamanaka,
Viliami Lolohea,
John Stewart,
Akihito Yamada,
Yasutaka Sasakura,
Riaan Viljoen,
Hajime Yamashita.
