Asia Rugby Women's Championship Explained

Asia Rugby Women's Championship
Upcoming Season:2024 Asia Rugby Women's Championship
Pixels:50px
Sport:Rugby union
Confed:Asia Rugby
Countries:



Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Philippines


Champ Season:2024
Most Successful Club: (6 titles)

The Asia Rugby Championship for women's national fifteen-a-side teams is a rugby union tournament that has been contested since 2006. Organised by Asia Rugby, there are currently two competition divisions — the Championship, and Division 1. The championship is also the continental qualifying tournament for Asian women's teams in the lead up to the Rugby World Cup, and the WXV.

History

The Asia Rugby Women's Championship began in 2006, the first tournament was hosted by China in Kunming.[1] Hosts, China, won the inaugural tournament and since then, Kazakhstan has gone on to win five times, Japan four times, and China and Hong Kong has won one each.

Format

The international test calendar was restructured to accommodate the upcoming WXV tournament.[2] [3] Asia Rugby announced that the Asia Rugby Women's Championship would now be played in two tiers as a pathway to the WXV tournament.[4]

The top team in the Championship division will compete in WXV 2 as Asia 1, and the runner-up in WXV 3.

Previous winners

All-time summary

Up to and including the 2024 edition, the following women's teams' Championship division top-3 finishes in tournaments:

Asia Rugby Championship

YearHostFinal placings
width=40width=45width=90width=15width=145width=160width=170width=170
Asian Rugby Championship Winner Runner-up Third Fourth
2006Kunming4
2007Kunming4
2008Taraz6
2010Tokyo2
Asian 4 Nations Winner Runner-up Third Fourth
2012Kunshan4
2013Almaty4
20144
Asia Rugby Championship Winner Runner-up Third Fourth
2015round-robin
home
or
away
3 rowspan=3
20163
20172
2021Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia[5]
20222
2023Almaty3
20243

Division tournaments

YearHostTeamsFinal placings
width=40width=45width=90width=15width=145width=160width=170width=170
ARC DivisionsWinnerRunner-upThirdFourth
20102Sikuet3
20112Vientiane4
20122Manila4
ARC Div 1WinnerRunner-upThirdFourth
20181Singapore3
20191Calamba4
20241 TBC 3 TBC TBC TBC

Notes: Some sources suggest that the match in Tokyo was for the 2010 ARFU Division 1 XV Championship.[6]

Relegated to the division below.

Able to be challenged by the winner of the division below to play in a promotion-relegation play-off.

Won promotion, or the right to a challenge play-off for promotion, to the division above.

Development tournament organised by ARFU in 2010. The games were 40 minutes long and were not test matches.

Asia Pacific Championship

YearHostTeamsFinal placings
WinnerRunner-upThird
20163
2019Lautoka, Fiji3

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2023-05-15 . Asia Rugby Women's Championship kicks off in Almaty . 2023-05-15 . Asia Rugby . en-US.
  2. Web site: 2020-11-30 . Rugby World Cup 2025 set to break new ground as tournament expands to 16 teams . 2022-12-23 . www.rugbyworldcup.com . en.
  3. Web site: 2020-11-30 . Women's Rugby World Cup to be expanded to 16 teams from 2025 . 2022-12-23 . Sky Sports . en.
  4. Web site: 2023-02-20 . Asia Rugby Releases Partial 2023 Tournament Calendar . 2023-03-26 . RugbyAsia247 . en-US.
  5. Web site: Statement regarding Rugby World Cup 2021 Final Qualification Tournament. live. 2022-01-22. www.rugbyworldcup.com. en. https://web.archive.org/web/20220121104452/https://www.rugbyworldcup.com/2021/news/681423/statement-regarding-rugby-world-cup-2021-final-qualification-tournament . 2022-01-21 .
  6. http://www.fira-aer-rugby.com/forum2007/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3671&p=39686#p39686