Asia Rugby

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.

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

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]}

Members

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:

• Azerbaijan (2004*)
• Brunei (2013*)
• China (1997)
• Chinese Taipei (1988)
• Guam (1998)
• Hong Kong (1988)
• India (1999)
• Indonesia (2013)
• Iran (2020)
• Japan (1987)
• Jordan (2024)
• Kazakhstan (1997)
• Korea (1988)
• Kyrgyzstan (2004*)
• Lao (2020)
• Lebanon (2018*)
• Malaysia (1988)
• Mongolia (2004*)
• Nepal (2023)
• Pakistan (2008)
• Philippines (2008)
• Qatar (2023)
• Singapore (1989)
• Syria (2022*)
• Sri Lanka (1988)
• Thailand (1989)
• United Arab Emirates (2012)
• Uzbekistan (2014)

There are 8 members not affiliated with World Rugby

• Afghanistan
• Bangladesh
• Cambodia
• Iraq
• Macau
• Oman
• Palestine
• Saudi Arabia

Other unions not affiliated with Asia Rugby

• Vietnam^‡

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

 * Denotes World Rugby associate membership date.

 ^^† Cambodia regained associate membership of Asia Rugby in 2020,^[6] after being suspended in 2016 for not complying with membership criteria.^[7]

 ^^‡ Vietnam is not currently a member of Asia Rugby.^[1]

Tournaments

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:

Men

• Asia Rugby Championship
• Asia Rugby Sevens Series
• Asia Rugby Sevens Trophy
• Asia Rugby U19 Championship

Women

• Asia Rugby Women's Championship
• Asia Rugby Women's Sevens Series
• Asia Rugby Women's Sevens Trophy

Sevens Series

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

World Rugby Rankings

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

Organisation structure

Updated: 26 March 2021[13]
Executive Committee
Qais Al-Dhalai (UAE) President Terence Khoo (SGP) Deputy President Rizwan Malik (PAK) Vice President Vela Tan (MAS) Vice President Didik Mukrianto (INA) Vice President Mike Haynes (HKG) Hon Treasurer Ada Milby (PHI) World Rugby Council Member Kakhramon Djalilov (UZB) Committee Member Tanka Lal Ghising (NEP) Committee Member Jaesup Choi (KOR) Committee Member Ghassan Hajjar (LBN) Committee Member Nahid Biyarjomandi (IRN) Committee Member Sahapol Polpathapee (THA) Committee Member Chen Yingbiao (CHN) Committee Member Asanga Seneviratne (SRI) Independent Committee Member Trevor Gregory (HKG) Independent Committee Member

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.

NAME	POSITION
Johny Stavrinou	CEO
Affan Jahangir	Accountant And Admin Officer
Gene Tong	Regional Training Consultant
Ben Van Rooyen	Rugby Development Consultant
Khuram Haroon	Digital Media Consultant
Ghaith Jalajel	Competitions & West Asia Development Consultant
George Danapal	Match Official Development Consultant
Anatoliy Shirov	Central Asia Development Consultant
Mahfizul Islam	South Asia Development Consultant
Medcom	Medical Coordinator

See also

• Rugby union in Asia