Asia Rugby

Asia Rugby
Formation 1968
Type Sports federation
Headquarters Hong Kong
Membership
31 unions
General Manager
 Ross Mitchell
Website asiarugby.com

Asia Rugby, formerly the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU), is the governing body of rugby union in Asia under the authority of World Rugby. Founded in 1968 by eight charter nations, the Union today has 31 member unions in countries across Asia, stretching from Kazakhstan to Guam.

The aim of Asia Rugby is: "to raise physical and moral standards in Asia by education in the healthy pursuit of Rugby Football and to promote friendship among Asian countries."

Competitions

Asia Rugby supports regional and pan-Asian tournaments for men's, women's and under 19's competitions in fifteen-a-side and seven-a-side rugby, including:

Asian Sevens Series

The Asian Sevens Series is like the HSBC World Sevens Series, but at a regional level.[1][2][3]

Members

Asia Rugby Rankings
Top 15 Rankings as of 23 November 2015[4]
RankChange*TeamPointsWR
1 Increase  Japan 77.0510
2 Increase  Hong Kong57.1723
3 Decrease  South Korea 56.7025
4 Steady  Sri Lanka 49.7938
5 Decrease  Kazakhstan 48.1443
6 Decrease  Philippines 45.1253
7 Steady  Malaysia 43.5357
8 Steady  Singapore 42.9259
9 Decrease  Chinese Taipei 40.2762
10 Decrease  China 39.5869
11 Decrease  Thailand 37.4674
12 Decrease  India 37.1276
13 Decrease  Pakistan 36.7480
14 Increase  United Arab Emirates 34.9285
15 Decrease  Indonesia 28.7398
*Based on the World Rugby Ranking

After the expulsion of Cambodia as of May 2016, Asia Rugby has 31 member unions.[5][6] Not all member unions are members of World Rugby.[7] Asia Rugby members are listed below, with the year each union joined World Rugby shown in brackets. World Rugby associates are shown in italics.[8]

There are 17 World Rugby members, and 5 World Rugby associates:

There are 9 unions not affiliated with World Rugby

  • Afghanistan Afghanistan
  • Bangladesh Bangladesh
  • Jordan Jordan
  • Lebanon Lebanon
  • Macau Macau
  • Nepal Nepal
  • Qatar Qatar
  • Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia
  • Syria Syria
  • Vietnam Vietnam‡

Notes:

 * Denotes World Rugby associate membership date.

 ^† Cambodia expelled in 2016 for not complying with membership criteria.[5]

 ^‡ Vietnam is not currently a member of Asia Rugby.[6]

The Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union was split up in 2011. It comprised the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman. The new governing body for the UAE is already active and has its own national team. UAE became the 100th full member of World Rugby in November 2012.[9] The other countries have not yet joined the ARFU.

Several governing bodies which administer partially, or largely Asian countries, such as that of Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel and Russia are members of the European body, Rugby Europe. Moreover, the recently formed Turkish Rugby Federation is expected to join Europe as well. Conversely, Kazakhstan, which is administered by European associations in other sports (such as within the football governing body, FIFA) is administered as part of Asia Rugby. In addition, Asia Rugby includes Guam (the organized unincorporated territory of the United States), which is arguably not in Asia, but in Oceania, and one transcontinental country, Indonesia.

Asia Rugby officers

Asia Rugby

See also

References

  1. ↑ Rugby and the Olympics Archived September 14, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.. IRB
  2. ↑ Asian 7s Series. ARFU.
  3. ↑ Promising start for Asian Sevens Series. UR7s.
  4. ↑ "World Rugby Rankings". Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Guatemala Obtain World Rugby Membership". americas Rugby News. 14 May 2016. Archived from the original on 14 May 2016. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
  6. 1 2 "Unions". Asia Rugby. 2016. Archived from the original on 14 May 2016. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
  7. ↑ "Handbook" (PDF). World Rugby. 2014. pp. 16–10. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  8. ↑ http://www.asiarugby.com/about-asia-rugby/membership
  9. ↑ "UAE become 100th full member of the IRB". RTÉ. 27 November 2012. Retrieved 28 November 2012.

External links

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