Asian 5 Nations & Asian rugby discussion

[Canalina Profile]

A resume of the asian unions status by Rugby Asia

Asia Rugby Full Members – World Rugby
China (1997)
Chinese Taipei (1988)
Guam (1998)
Hong Kong, China (1988)
India (1999)
Indonesia (2013)
Japan (1987)
Korea (1988)
Kazakhstan (1997)
Malaysia (1988)
Pakistan (2008)
Philippines (2008)
Singapore (1989)
Sri Lanka (1988)
Thailand (1989)
UAE (2011)
Uzbekistan (2014)

Asia Rugby Associate Members – World Rugby
Brunei (2013)
Iran (2011)
Jordan (2020)
Kyrgyzstan
Laos (2004)
Lebanon(2018)
Mongolia (2004)
Qatar (2020)

Asia Rugby Membership Full Members
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Nepal
Syria

Asia Rugby Membership Associate Members
Iraq
Palestine
Macau
Saudi Arabia
Cambodia

PS: between the Asian WR associated members World Rugby, which confirms to have some issue with geography, lists also Algeria and Azerbaijan

[Canalina Profile]

Iran Rugby concretized an idea I had since some time ago: a sort of Olympic Games with individual competitions based on rugby skills. "The first Combined Rugby Skills Challenge". The federation article doesn't give details but judging by the images on their social media there were competitions of speed race, of touch throwing, of tackling, of kicking to the posts. I would add (if they there were not already) competitions of precision in the pass, maybe of high kicks's ball catching...
This sort of games could seem a bit useless in normal times but it could result more meaningful and useful right during a social distancing period

Results...

Gentlemen
First: Moin Vahedi 20.96 points
Second: Ali Fadaeizadeh 23.20 points
Third: Mohammad Mehdi Ghamari 26.25 points

Women
First: Hanieh Kiani. 23.75 points
Second: Zeynab Khadempour 24.29 points
Third: Mehr Negar Farrokh Manesh 26.20 points

http://rugbyiran.ir/d.asp?id=103568

[Canalina Profile]

From rugger.info, which is always laudably presenting a good range of infos: not just about eastern Europe but also about Tier I and minor nations

Indian national players will start collecting salaries
India has begun the transition from amateurs to professionals

The second most populous country on the planet has taken a step towards the introduction of professional rugby.
The government of Odisha (one of the states of the Indian Republic) has signed a sponsorship agreement with the Rugby Union of India. Under the terms of the contract, the men's and women's rugby and rugby-7 teams will be able to hold full-fledged training camps, and the players will receive wages.

For the leadership of Odisha, this is no longer the first aid to sports. In 2018, the state government sponsored the Indian field hockey team, providing the team with one of the country's largest stadiums, Kalinga.

As of October 2020, India is ranked 84th in the World Rugby rankings.

https://rugger.info/news/36605

[victorsra Profile Website]

Awesome news. India is now in Asia's 4th division. It would prove decisive to go up in an mostly amateur continent. But we need to see how India grows in their U20s. There are many news about Tag rugby, but not many about contact rugby...

[Canalina Profile]

Afghanistan 7s championship played in these days. Eight teams competing, from seven different cities/regions

The results of day one
Parwan 25 vs Kabul City 5
Kabul 30 vs Bamyan 5
Panjshir 20 vs Parwan 0
Laghman 12 vs Kapisa 7
Ghazni 40 vs Kabul City 0
Bamyan 5 vs Laghman 27
Kabul 22 vs Kapisa 0
Panjshir 19 vs Ghazni 5
Ghazni 10 vs Parwan 5
Kapisa 22 vs Bamyan 5
Panjshir 32 vs Kabul City 0
Kabul 19 vs Laghman 0

the H posts, made with a soccer goal, two poles and a good amount of scotch tape


the map of the teams


and the federation's logos: the old one (left) and the purposed new one (right)

[ficcp Profile]

Congratulations to the afghan Rugbiers. To run a Rugby tournament in a country much divided by ethnical and political reasons, which has been through endless wars since 1980, is a great achievement. I hope they will have many more in the future.

[Canalina Profile]

Grass cleaning in the first field dedicated to rugby in Iraq

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... 0514713658

[Canalina Profile]

Rugby 7s risks to be no more included in the SEA (South East Asian) Games
https://www.rugbyasia247.com/will-there ... sea-games/

[Chester-Donnelly Profile]

Rugby 7s risks to be no more included in the SEA (South East Asian) Games
https://www.rugbyasia247.com/will-there ... sea-games/

Netball

[victorsra Profile Website]

Rugby 7s risks to be no more included in the SEA (South East Asian) Games
https://www.rugbyasia247.com/will-there ... sea-games/

Of the SEA Games countries, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Brunei and Indonesia are all Asia Rugby Members. In the region, only Timor-Leste, Myanmar and... Vietnam (the next host country) doesn't have. I guess the problem is the hosts. Which is disappointing, as Asia Rugby recently mentioned Vietnam as one country they want to help.

Rugby Sevens was also out in 2013 when the SEA Games were in Myanmar.

Netball

Malaysia and Singapore, Commonwealth nations, are there, makes sense. The question is how many others have Netball. According to https://netball.sport/ Thailand has, while Brunei (Commonwealth), Timor-Leste and the Philippines (I guess due to Aussie influence) are Associate Members.

So, Rugby has more SEA nations than Netball.

[Chester-Donnelly Profile]

Rugby 7s risks to be no more included in the SEA (South East Asian) Games
https://www.rugbyasia247.com/will-there ... sea-games/

Of the SEA Games countries, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Brunei and Indonesia are all Asia Rugby Members. In the region, only Timor-Leste, Myanmar and... Vietnam (the next host country) doesn't have. I guess the problem is the hosts. Which is disappointing, as Asia Rugby recently mentioned Vietnam as one country they want to help.

Rugby Sevens was also out in 2013 when the SEA Games were in Myanmar.

Netball

Malaysia and Singapore, Commonwealth nations, are there, makes sense. The question is how many others have Netball. According to https://netball.sport/ Thailand has, while Brunei (Commonwealth), Timor-Leste and the Philippines (I guess due to Aussie influence) are Associate Members.

So, Rugby has more SEA nations than Netball.

and yet, netball is in the SEA Games, and rugby is out.

[victorsra Profile Website]

No, it isn't, you misread it.

On October 20th, 2020, Vietnam added 4 more sports to the roster to bring the total tally to 40 sports. Rugby 7s was not one of them. Triathlon, bowling, jiu-jitsu, and esports were the latest additions and the full list of sports can be viewed here.

Other SEA countries have asked the following sports to be included:

Sailing
Indoor hockey
Netball
Cricket
Skateboarding
Sambo
Rugby
Squash
Lawn balls

[Chester-Donnelly Profile]

So what are the 40 sports then?

[victorsra Profile Website]

So what are the 40 sports then?

Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Sout ... sian_Games (the source is in Vietnamese):



Aquatics
Diving
Swimming
Finswimming
Water polo
Archery
Athletics
Badminton
Basketball
Basketball pictogram.svg 5x5 Basketball
3x3 basketball pictogram.svg 3x3 Basketball
Billiards
Bodybuilding
Bowling
Boxing
Canoeing
Chess
Cycling
Mountain bike
Road
Dancesport
Esports
Fencing
Football
Beach Soccer (2)
Football (2)
Futsal (2)
Golf
Gymnastics
Artistic
Rhythmic
Aerobic
Handball
Judo
Jujutsu
Karate
Kickboxing
Kurash
Muaythai
Pencak silat
Pétanque
Rowing
Sepak takraw
Shooting
Table tennis
Taekwondo
Tennis
Triathlon
Volleyball
Beach volleyball
Indoor volleyball
Vovinam
Weightlifting
Wrestling
Wushu

[Chester-Donnelly Profile]

Thank you. That's a really interesting list of sports.

[Canalina Profile]

Which is disappointing, as Asia Rugby recently mentioned Vietnam as one country they want to help.

And Vietnam was one of the twenty countries with the biggest tv audience in the last RWC, according to the (doubtful) World Rugby report

[victorsra Profile Website]

Maybe that's the end of the line for Hong Kong's South China Tigers? No posts since Oct 1st. They were posting mosre often before. https://twitter.com/sctrugby

Anyway, Hong Kong's Premiership is going on https://www.hkrugby.com/news/shock-star ... remiership

[victorsra Profile Website]

Laos and Iran became World Rugby full members. Nepal is a new World Rugby associate member https://www.world.rugby/news/603777/wor ... ew-members

[victorsra Profile Website]

Bangladesh working: https://www.asiarugby.com/2020/11/05/ba ... ir-pledge/

[Canalina Profile]

An interview, in italian, with Ali Esteki, scrumhalf of italian club Lazio born in Iran

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... 0689872550

[Canalina Profile]

Afghan U19 7s championship, with eight teams. If they are ten boys per team, it's eighty U19 players: not bad at all for a country with no tradition and structural weaknesses like Afghanistan

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... 2917953177

[Thomas Profile]

Asia Rugby revamped committees 2021-2024.
29% Women’s members
76% of unions’ nominees in 9 committees;
reflecting the strong drive towards Equality, Transparency and Accountability. Scales

[Canalina Profile]

The Asian Championship 2021 will be again a round robin home&away, without Japan and with three teams: Hkg, Kor, Mal.
The tournament should be also part of the RWCQ

https://www.asiarugby.com/asia-rugby-calendar-2021/

[victorsra Profile Website]

The last time Japan played it was in 2017. It looks like they are realy out.

[victorsra Profile Website]

2021 Asian Championships
- Top 3: Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia;
- Div 1: Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore and UAE;
- Div 2: Chinese Taipei, Thailand, China and Pakistan;
- Div 3: TBC

So, China and Pakistan were indeed promoted from Div 3 to Div 2 as group champions in 2019. Qatar was also a champion, but not promoted (what's the criterea? Mistery).

Anyway, the bottom 2 teams of 2019 Div 2 were Kazakhstan and Guam, now relegated. The question is: will Kazakhstan participate in Div 3 or this means they are withdrewing again?

Trying to guess possible Div3 groups:
- West: Qatar, Lebanon, Jordan. It would be nice to see Iran back. They were out in 2019;
- Center - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, India. Could we hope to see a new team? Mongolia? Afghanistan? Nepal?
- East - Guam, Indonesia. Let's hope Laos or Brunei or Cambodia will be back.

Or maybe, with COVID19 hurting the Unions, just 2 groups?
- West: Kazakhstan, Qatar, Lebanon, Jordan;
- East: Guam, Uzbekistan, India, Indonesia;

For those that don't remember 2019: http://rugbyarchive.net/compseasons/135