Asian & Caribbean 7s titles on the line

Asian Championship (second leg), Pune, India

The second half of the Asian women's sevens returns to Pune, the centre of Indian rugby, for the third year.

Eight of the twelve teams from thefirst leg in Thailandreturn, including all of the top seven teams. However, the smaller East Asian teams (Taiwan, Korea, Guam and Laos) are replaced by teams from the west - India, Iran and the UAE.

As a result one record will have been broken before the tournament begins. Overall fifteen teams will have taken part in this year's Asian Championship - a new record - and one that fully justifies the decision to move to a two-leg event at different locations in this huge and varied continent.

With an awkward 11 teams, this weekend will have a different format to that of six weeks ago.

China - winners of the first leg - will play in Group A alongside hosts India, Kazakhstan (4th in Thailand), Sri Lanka (5th), and Thailand (9th).

Group B will be lead by Japan (narrowly runners-up in September), Hong Kong (3rd), Singapore (6th), Philippines (7th), Iran and the UAE.

With such large pools there will be no knock-out stage, instead the winners of each pool will meet in the final, the runners-up will play for third place - and so on. As a result there will be little or no margin for error and every point will count.

In practice it is hard to see beyond China winning Group A, and Japan Group B. As both the first leg, and the Asia-Pacific Sevens, showed these two teams are now pulling away from the rest of the region, the fruit of several years of strong support from their unions.

The other teams in the mix are likely to be Kazakhstan (who have been falling behind their East Asian rivals of late, but are still dangerous), Sri Lanka (the surprise packet of Thailand), and Hong Kong, where it will be far too early to see any results from theirrecently-announced investmentbut who nonetheless will be hoping to repeat their third place from the first leg - their best result in an Asian Sevens since 2006.

While the rest will not be contending for the title this year, the competition will be an important learning experience. Sri Lanka have shown that it is possible to breakthrough into the top tier, and India in particular have the potential - and player-base - to follow in the near future.

The fixture schedule can be downloaded from theARFU websitewith results on theARFU Facebook page.

NACRA Championship, Cayman Islands

While the Asian tournament is a sign of the health and growth of the game in that region, the NACRA Caribbean Women's Sevens is one of the few positives in the one region where the game appears to be in decline.

The root cause is undoubtedly money - the cost of inter-island travel is often prohibitively high, and will have been a significant reason for the disappearance of the NACRA fifteens championship from the calendar.

Caribbean women's rugby has also developed in almost complete isolation from the rest of the world. Only Trinidad have ever played in a tournament outside the islands - and that was in the USA, so technically still inside the NACRA region.

The power-houses to the north have started to offer some help - and it is good to see that the Maple Leafs again taking part in this tournament, the third year running that Rugby Canada have supported the event.

Eight teams, including the Maple Leafs, are due to take part this year in a tournament that will run alongside the men's event.

In Pool A the Maple Leafs have been drawn with the hosts, the Cayman Islands, Mexico and the Turks and Caicos - who will be making their debut in the tournament.

Pool B will feature Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Bermuda and Curacao - who are also making their debut.

Among the teams missing are Guyana and Barbados, formerly two of the region's strongest nations - their absence almost certainly due to cost. In fact Guyana - along with many of the smaller southern Caribbean islands - will not be playing in with the men's or women's events.

The Maple Leafs - who will mix players new to the red jersey with some experienced players - will probably prove too strong for the island teams, with Trinidad and Jamaica competing for the runners-up spot.

Results from the event are due to appear on theNACRA website.

Soustons Sevens, France

A third - and rather more low-key - sevens tournament is also due to take place in France. Teams from Ireland, Germany, Tunisia, England, France, and Netherlands - plus French and Dutch development teams - will meet just outside Biaritz as part their respective countries build-up to Dubai.