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 31 member unions in countries across Asia, stretching from Kazakhstan to Guam.
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."

Members

Asia Rugby has 31 member unions. Not all member unions are members of World Rugby. Asia Rugby members are listed below, with the year each union joined World Rugby shown in brackets. World Rugby associates are shown in italics.
There are 17 World Rugby members, and 5 World Rugby associates:
There are 9 members not affiliated with World Rugby
Other unions not affiliated with Asia Rugby
Notes

* Denotes World Rugby associate membership date.
Cambodia expelled in 2016 for not complying with membership criteria.
Vietnam is not currently a member of Asia Rugby.

A former member, the Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union was split up in 2011. It comprised the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman. The new governing body for the UAE is already active and has its own national team. UAE became the 100th full member of World Rugby in November 2012. The other countries have not yet joined the ARFU.''
Several governing bodies which administer partially, or largely Asian countries, such as that of,,,, and are members of the European body, Rugby Europe. Conversely,, which is administered by European associations in other sports is administered as part of Asia Rugby. In addition, Asia Rugby includes Guam, which is arguably not in Asia, but in Oceania, and one transcontinental country, Indonesia.

Competitions

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
Women
The Asian Sevens Series is similar to the HSBC World Sevens Series, but at a regional level.

Rankings

Continental rankings for women's and men's fifteen-a-side rugby:

Organisation structure

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 at the end of each year where the 12-person Executive Committee is elected.
, the president of Asia Rugby is Qais Al-Dhalai of the United Arab Emirates.
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.