The Microsoft Cup is a knock-out Japanese rugby union tournament sponsored by Microsoft Japan, first played in February 2004. For the first three seasons the top eight teams of the Top League participated and it was a separate competition to the Top League, but in 2007 this was cut to the top four teams, making two semi-finals and the final. Since that time the cup tournament has been officially integrated into the Top League as the Top League Play-off Tournament Microsoft Cup and the winner of the cup is now the league champion.
Video referee (TMO) decisions will be introduced in the 2009 Cup series.
Read more about Microsoft Cup: The Fourth Microsoft Cup (2007)
Famous quotes containing the word cup:
“Sisters define their rivalry in terms of competition for the gold cup of parental love. It is never perceived as a cup which runneth over, rather a finite vessel from which the more one sister drinks, the less is left for the others.”
—Elizabeth Fishel (20th century)