Asian Rugby Football Union Backgrounder

The HSBC Asian Five Nations marks the latest chapter in the long and distinguished history of rugby in Asia, the fastest growing region in world rugby. In the last ten years, the membership of the Asian Rugby Football Union has more than doubled from 10 members in 1998 to 26 unions today. 

The history of rugby in Asia dates back nearly as long as that in England, where the world's first rugby union, the RFU, was established in 1871. Just eight years later, in 1879, the first Asian rugby union was founded in the Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, Rugby Football Union. Rugby was also being played in both Hong Kong and Japan before the turn of the century. 

The game maintained its appeal amongst Asian audiences through the tumultuous post-colonial era and on 15 December 1968 the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) was founded with eight original members: Ceylon, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The original aim of the ARFU has remained unchanged to this day: ‘to raise physical and moral standards in Asia by education in the healthy pursuit of Rugby Football and to promote friendship among Asian countries.'

The first Asian Rugby Football Tournament (ARFT) was held in April 1969 in Tokyo. It has been played (initially annually and then later bi-annually) ever since. The HSBC Asian Five Nations Top 5 competition has taken the place of the historic Asian Rugby Football Tournament. The present ARFT trophy will now be contested in the HSBC Asian Five Nations Division I competition.  

Asia has been represented at every Rugby World Cup since 1987 with Japan being the only Asian team to have qualified and played in every Rugby World Cup. Of the 26 member unions of the Asian Rugby Football Union, 15 Asian unions are full members of the International Rugby Board: Arabian Gulf, China, Chinese Taipei, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. There are 6 associate members of the IRB in Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, and Uzbekistan. The remaining members of ARFU are Brunei, Iran, Jordan, Macau and Qatar.