Asian 4N springboard for Kazakh WRWC bid

The Asian Four Nations kicks off this weekend. Kazakhstan are defending their title in a tournament that has been brought forward four months and restructured to match the demands of the pool stage of this summer's World Cup.

Since the first ARFU Asian fifteens championship in 2006 the tournament has been organised on a knock-out basis, but this year the tournament will be played as round-robin pool to exactly the same timetable as Kazakhstan will face in Paris.

The Kazakhs start as favourites - not least because they have won ever ARFU tournament that they have entered, and never lost a test match against Asian opposition.

However, the Asian championship is not the one-sided event that it may have been in the past. Since the lost the 2008 final 39-3 to the Kazakhs, Japan in particular have been catching up year on year, and last season came within two points of stealing Kazakhstan's world cup place. Although it is too late for the Japanese to reach Paris, they will be determined to continue that trend and gain revenge for last year's defeat.

“The ARFU is excited to welcome the return of the Asian Women’s Four Nations to the calendar", says Trevor Gregory, President of ARFU. "This intensive competition will provide an important boost for women’s rugby and the region’s hopes for qualifying additional teams for future Women’s Rugby World Cups."

All games will be played at the Aberdeen Stadium in Hong Kong from May 18-24. As the second division tournament has fallen in to abeyance, no new team has been promooted to the top rank since last September's tournament, so the same four teams will take part. SoKazakhstan and Japan will also face the challenge of games against Singapore and Hong Kong.

However, the ARFU will no doubt be hoping that the latter two teams will have advanced since last year's event. There were signs that the regions two leading teams are rapidly leaving the rest of the continent behind. As recently as 2010 Hong Kong pushed Japan all the way in a 17-0 defeat, but last year this had grown to 82-0, while Singapore were beaten even more heavily, losing 91-7 to Kazakhstan.

Trevor Gregory also announced details of the upcoming ARFU Asian Sevens Series, which will be held from August to October, a window that includes the Asian Games rugby sevens competition in South Korea.

Hong Kong (August 23-24) and Shanghai (October 18-19) have been confirmed as the tournament hosts for this year’s women's tournaments, both if which will be held alongside the parallel men's tournaments.The events will focus on the core teams, with participation will vary from eight to 12 teams in each of the two tournaments, with the leading two teams expected to go on to a World Series qualifier which is expected to take place in Europe (probably France) in September.

“ARFU anticipates further growth in the competitiveness of Asia’s women’s sevens teams with this year’s Asian Sevens Series providing a perfect build-up to one of the highlights of the year’s rugby calendar, the Asian Games sevens competition this autumn,” Gregory said.

Asian Women’s Four Nations, Aberdeen Stadium, Hong Kong

May 18:           Japan v Singapore; Hong Kong v Kazakhstan

May 21:           Kazakhstan v Singapore; Hong Kong v Japan

May 24:           Hong Kong v Singapore; Kazakhstan v Japan

Asian Women's Sevens Series

Aug 23-24:      Hong Kong Asian Sevens, Hong Kong

Oct 18-19:       Shanghai Sevens, Shanghai, China