Asia Rugby

Asia Rugby

Formation	1968
Type	Sports federation
Headquarters	Hong Kong
Membership	36 unions
President	Qais Al-Dhalai
Interim CEO	Benjamin Van Rooyen
Website	asiarugby.com

Asia Rugby, formerly the Asian Rugby Football Union, 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 36 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".^{[citation needed]}

Asia Rugby has 36 member unions.^[1] Not all member unions are members of World Rugby.^[2] Asia Rugby members are listed below, with the year each union joined World Rugby shown in brackets. World Rugby associates are shown in italics.^[3]

There are 22 World Rugby members, and 6 World Rugby associates:

There are 8 members not affiliated with World Rugby

Other unions not affiliated with Asia Rugby

Several rugby governing bodies for countries in Asia (partially, largely or entirely) – such as Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel, Russia and Turkey – are members of the European body, Rugby Europe. 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.

A former member, the Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union, represented Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE until it was dissolved at the end of 2010 to allow separate national unions administer the game in each country.^[4] The new governing body for the UAE became the 100th full member of World Rugby in November 2012.^[5] In 2020, Qatar became an associate member of World Rugby and Saudi Arabia became an associate member of Asia Rugby. The other three countries do not yet have a national governing body affiliated with Asia Rugby.

Notes

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

The Asian Sevens Series is similar to the HSBC World Sevens Series, but at a regional level.^[8][9][10]

Men's World Rugby Rankings (as of 2 January 2023)[11] Asia* World Rugby +/- National Team Points 1 10  Japan 77.39 2 24  Hong Kong 59.66 3 32  South Korea 52.62 4 42  Philippines 47.8 5 46 1  Sri Lanka 46.73 6 50 1  Malaysia 46.12 7 55 1  Singapore 44.05 8 60  United Arab Emirates 41.23 9 63  Kazakhstan 40.91 10 65  Chinese Taipei 39.23 11 71  Guam 36.38 12 79  Thailand 35.49 13 82  China 34.91 14 85  India 33.4 15 90  Uzbekistan 31.28 16 92  Pakistan 30.78 17 94  Iran 30 18 95  Laos 30 19 105  Indonesia 21.95 *Local rankings based on World Rugby ranking points

Women's World Rugby Rankings (as of 2 January 2023)[12] Asia* World Rugby +/- National Team Points 1 12  Japan 67.94 2 15  Hong Kong 59.25 3 20  Kazakhstan 57.09 4 22  China 49.34 5 36  Singapore 40.06 6 45  India 37.6 7 48  Thailand 36.35 8 51  Uzbekistan 35.4 9 55  Philippines 33.16 *Local rankings based on World Rugby ranking points

The member unions form the Council which is Asia Rugby’s ultimate decision-making body. The Council meets twice a year, including for the Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the end of each year where the 12-person executive committee (Exco) is elected.^[14]

As of 2020^[update], the president of Asia Rugby is Qais Al-Dhalai of the United Arab Emirates.^[15]

Management and staff of Asia Rugby, headed by CEO Johny Stavrinou and General Manager Ross Mitchell, are based at Olympic House, Causeway Bay in Hong Kong.^[16]

Also, Asia Rugby has contracted with a number of Officers in Asia for Development.

• Rugby union in Asia

• Official website