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:
“I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man: wine is not so noble a liquor; and think of dashing the hopes of a morning with a cup of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea! Ah, how low I fall when I am tempted by them! Even music may be intoxicating. Such apparently slight causes destroyed Greece and Rome, and will destroy England and America.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)