Asia Rugby celebrates 50th anniversary with first ever World Cup hosting in Japan

Asia Rugby celebrates 50th anniversary with first ever World Cup hosting in Japan

By Shamzeer Jaleel

Asia Rugby celebrated its 50^th birthday in Hong Kong with the first ever hosting of a Rugby World Cup in Japan in 2019.

Further the Olympics with rugby sevens included also in Asia in 2020, Asia Rugby are proud to be at the heart of rugby for the next two years. Hong Kong narrowly miss out on joining Japan at Rugby World Cup 2019 losing out to Germany in the last 4 event in ending on number 2. Hong Kong earlier in the year won the first-ever Asia Rugby Championship while Japan completed a clean sweep in the Asia Rugby Sevens Series.

Meanwhile Philippines won Division I, Taipei won Division II and Guam, Lebanon and Kazakhstan were victorious in the East, West and Central Division III competitions this year.

Singapore won the Women's Championship Division I and Asia Rugby Sevens Trophy with Malaysia recording victory in the women's Trophy.

Hong Kong and China won the men's and women's Asia Rugby Under 20 Sevens. China showed their dominance in junior rugby when they won the Under 18 Girls Sevens in India with Malaysia winning the boys segment hoting the event.

Hong Kong won Gold at the Asian Games while Sri Lanka and Malaysia put on a good show at the Commonwealth Games being Asian Zone representatives where Sri Lanka scored against all three teams they played against, Fiji, Wales and Uganda.

December month saw Singapore winning Division I while Hong Kong continued their dominance in Under 19 men's winning the trophy for six years in a row thus qualifying for 2019 Junior World Rugby Tournament Division I in 2019.