Asia takes on Oceania in Shanghai

The women’s tournament will be played alongside the Shanghai 7s at the Yuanshen Stadium in Pudong.

China, Japan and Hong Kong will face three Oceania teams from the recent Oceania Women’s Sevens - champions Australia, Samoa and Papua New Guinea (who finished 4th and 5th in Noosa)

Australia’s newly appointed sevens coach, Tim Walsh, has indicated that he will be taking a young team to the Asia Pacific Sevens to prepare Australia for the opening tournament of the Women’s Rugby World Series which kicks off in Dubai in late November.

This will be the fifth instalment of a tournament that has grown in status significantly since it was first played at the Borneo 7s in 2007, when the tournament was a very minor affair that attracted no publicity. The status of the competition grew when it moved to Malaysia in 2010, and confirmation that it was now a major event came in 2012 when the Asian championship became an official qualification event - and then World Champions Australi took part for the first time.

In recent years the tournament has mainly highlighted the rise of Pacific rugby. Asia dominated for the first two competitions, but the last Asian win was in 2010 - when Kazakhstan narrowly beat Papua New Guinea in the final. Since then in 2011 and 2012 tournaments have gone to Oceania with comfortable wins by Papua New Guinea (over China) and Australia (against Japan).

This year, the six teams are grouped in a single pool and will play out the games in a round robin format on day one. The top four teams from the pool stages will enter the Cup Semi-finals with the fifth and sixth placed team playing for the Bowl.

In the first game of Saturday, Japan will face China in a repeat of the Asia series women’s cup finals. The games will be streamed live via   The women’s tournament will be played alongside the Shanghai 7s at the Yuanshen Stadium in Pudong. The tournament is also due to be streamed live athttp://www.hirugby.comand same day coverage of the knockout games will be available onwww.youtube.com/user/arfuwomensrugby.

Meanwhile in Europe the Netherlands continue with their preparations for the season. After low-key visits to Belgium and Germany in recent weeks, this weekend they will be hosting a four-team tournament in Haarlem involving Belgium, and the Irish development and Dutch development teams.

Schedule for Asian Pacific Women’s Sevens 2013

Saturday, 26 Oct 20139:00 Japan v  China9:20 Samoa v Australia9:40 Hong Kong v PNG11:20 Japan v PNG11:40 Samoa v Hong Kong12:00 Australia v China14:00 Japan v Samoa14:20 Hong Kong v Australia14:40 PNG v China16:40 Japan v Hong Kong17:00 Samoa v China17:20 PNG v Australia

Sunday, 27 October 201310:20 Japan  v Australia10:40 Samoa  v PNG11:00 Hong Kong  v China13:00 1st  v 4th13:20 2nd  v 3rd15:00 Bowl Final16:05 Plate Final17:10 Cup Final

(With thanks to the ARFU)