2011 Rugby World Cup squads
Player Position Date of birth ( age ) Caps Club/province
Yusuke Aoki Hooker ( 1983-02-28 ) 28 February 1983 ( aged 28 ) 21 Suntory Sungoliath
Shota Horie Hooker ( 1986-01-21 ) 21 January 1986 ( aged 25 ) 14 Panasonic Wild Knights
Hiroki Yuhara Hooker ( 1984-01-21 ) 21 January 1984 ( aged 27 ) 8 Toshiba Brave Lupus
Nozomu Fujita Prop ( 1984-10-02 ) 2 October 1984 ( aged 26 ) 10 Honda Heat
Kensuke Hatakeyama Prop ( 1985-08-02 ) 2 August 1985 ( aged 26 ) 23 Suntory Sungoliath
Hisateru Hirashima Prop ( 1983-01-15 ) 15 January 1983 ( aged 28 ) 24 Kobelco Steelers
Naoki Kawamata Prop ( 1985-10-31 ) 31 October 1985 ( aged 25 ) 17 Panasonic Wild Knights
Toshizumi Kitagawa Lock ( 1981-02-07 ) 7 February 1981 ( aged 30 ) 37 Toyota Verblitz
Yuji Kitagawa Lock ( 1986-08-11 ) 11 August 1986 ( aged 25 ) 5 Panasonic Wild Knights
Hitoshi Ono Lock ( 1978-05-06 ) 6 May 1978 ( aged 33 ) 51 Toshiba Brave Lupus
Luke Thompson Lock ( 1981-04-16 ) 16 April 1981 ( aged 30 ) 34 Kintetsu Liners
Takashi Kikutani ( c ) Flanker ( 1980-02-24 ) 24 February 1980 ( aged 31 ) 44 Toyota Verblitz
Michael Leitch Flanker ( 1988-10-07 ) 7 October 1988 ( aged 22 ) 19 Toshiba Brave Lupus
Sione Vatuvei Flanker ( 1983-03-14 ) 14 March 1983 ( aged 28 ) 5 Panasonic Wild Knights
Itaru Taniguchi Number 8 ( 1984-10-01 ) 1 October 1984 ( aged 26 ) 7 Kobelco Steelers
Toetu ' u Taufa Number 8 ( 1980-10-08 ) 8 October 1980 ( aged 30 ) 21 Kintetsu Liners
Ippei Asada Scrum-half ( 1980-06-26 ) 26 June 1980 ( aged 31 ) 0 Toyota Verblitz
Atsushi Hiwasa Scrum-half ( 1987-05-22 ) 22 May 1987 ( aged 24 ) 6 Suntory Sungoliath
Fumiaki Tanaka Scrum-half ( 1985-01-03 ) 3 January 1985 ( aged 26 ) 28 Panasonic Wild Knights
James Arlidge Fly-half ( 1979-08-11 ) 11 August 1979 ( aged 32 ) 29 Nottingham
The 2011 Rugby World Cup was an international rugby union tournament played in New Zealand from 9 September to 23 October 2011. Each of the 20 competing nations was required to confirm its 30-man squad by 23 August; only players in these squads were eligible to take part in the tournament. Players could be replaced for medical or compassionate reasons, but they would be unable to return to the squad. Any replacement players had an enforced stand-down period of 48 hours before they could take the field. Players marked (c) were the nominated captains for their teams. Number of caps and players' ages are indicated as of 9 September 2011, the tournament's opening day. The tournament was played during the Super Rugby off-season. Players who were released or changed clubs are out-of-contract with their clubs and finished with their 2011 clubs, and in-contract with their national unions and/or future clubs for the 2012 (2011-12 in the Northern Hemisphere) season. Players were listed with their current affiliations as of the opening day of the tournament on 9 September (with some on-going updates during the tournament). Three squads were made up entirely of players from home-based clubs. Two of these, Australia and New Zealand, had players who signed with overseas clubs for the 2011-12 northern hemisphere season. However, all players on both squads played for clubs within their country, either in Super Rugby or New Zealand's domestic ITM Cup, in the preceding 2011 season.