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The National
a day ago
- Sport
- The National
Asia Rugby Championship: Can UAE qualify for the 2027 Rugby World Cup?
The leading rugby players of the UAE return to national duty this weekend when they host Hong Kong at The Sevens, Dubai. It is the opening fixture of the 2025 Asia Rugby Championship (ARC), which carries with it a direct qualification place at the Rugby World Cup. Expansion The next World Cup, to be played in Australia in October and November 2027, will involve 24 teams, up from 20 last time. The first three World Cups featured 16 teams, while all those from 1999 till the last one, in France in 2023, have had 20. The new format will feature six pools of four teams, with a round of 16 added before the quarter-finals. The tournament duration is reduced from seven to six weeks. For the first time, there will also be a guaranteed participant from Asia other than Japan. Qualifying Twelve teams gained automatic qualification for the tournament by finishing in the top three of their pool at the 2023 World Cup. Four teams have qualified from Europe. Three will qualify from the Pacific – which includes Japan - plus one each from Africa, Asia and South America. There will be an additional qualifier from a South America/Pacific play-off. The final team will be decided via a four-team repechage tournament, to be played in Dubai in November. Asian representation Japan are one of only 10 sides to have played at every Rugby World Cup. No other Asian side has ever played in rugby's showpiece tournament. That is guaranteed to change this time. The winners of the 2025 ARC will qualify directly, while the runners-up will be entered into a repechage system. Play-offs The second-placed side in the Asia Rugby Championship will face a play-off against the second-best side from the corresponding competition in Africa. The losers will be eliminated, while the winners will advance to the last-chance, four-team final qualification tournament. If the UAE do finish second in the ARC, it will be tough. They have played Zimbabwe and Kenya in recent times – each potential opponents in the play-off – and have been soundly beaten. If they were to make it through, though, there would be a significant incentive for them. Home advantage The final qualification tournament will be a four-team round-robin tournament, and is to be played at The Sevens, Dubai – even if the UAE aren't involved. The participating teams will include Belgium, the fifth-placed team from the European section of qualifying, plus the third-placed team from South America. They will be joined by the loser of the play-off series between South America and the Pacific sections, plus the winner of the African/Asia play-off. The winner of the tournament, which will be played from November 8-18, will advance to the World Cup. 2025 ARC fixtures Friday, June 13, Colombo: Sri Lanka v South Korea Saturday, June 14, Dubai: UAE v Hong Kong Saturday, June 21, Incheon: South Korea v UAE Sunday June 22, Hong Kong: Hong Kong China v Sri Lanka Friday, July 4, Colombo: Sri Lanka v UAE Saturday, July 5, Incheon: South Korea v Hong Kong China UAE's form The national team's hopes of featuring in the qualification shake-up soared when they achieved a historic second-place finish in the ARC last year. They managed that by claiming a thrilling comeback win against South Korea in the heat of the Dubai summer, t hen by dispatching Malaysia. If they are to go one better this year, and claim that automatic qualifying berth, they will likely have to do something they have never managed before. Since replacing the Arabian Gulf in the World Rugby competition structure in 2011, the UAE have yet to beat Hong Kong. The UAE's opening day visitors have won the ARC for each other past five years. What the UAE do have in their favour, though, is that they are hosting Hong Kong in the heat of summer. The national team then have away fixtures against South Korea and Sri Lanka.
South China Morning Post
26-05-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Bigger, faster, stronger: Hong Kong prepare for shot at reaching Rugby World Cup
In any normal year, Hong Kong's men could be forgiven a certain level of arrogance going into next month's Asia Rugby Championship. Unbeaten since Japan left a competition they had outgrown by the end of 2017, Hong Kong won last year's tournament at a canter, scoring 189 points and conceding just 18 while sweeping aside the United Arab Emirates, South Korea and Malaysia. The closest they came to losing in the intervening years was away to the Koreans in 2022, when only a last-minute Gregor McNeish penalty in a nail-biting 23-21 triumph preserved the 100 per cent record. But this is not a normal year. For the first time, the winners will get direct entry into the World Cup – a prize that hangs like a shadow over all those involved. 'It's a position not many get to be in,' Andrew Douglas, the Hong Kong head coach, said. 'I know it sounds cliche, but we'll deal with it one game at a time, because we have to. We can't think of only one part of that. UAE and Korea have both lifted their games as well in terms of full-time programmes. Shanna Forrest fends off a Japan player during Hong Kong's defeat on Sunday. Photo: Hong Kong China Rugby 'So you can't just think that it's going to be the same as last year, but we're certainly not walking away from the fact that there's a lot of pressure on it.'
New Straits Times
23-04-2025
- Sport
- New Straits Times
Malaysia Rugby to conduct post-mortem after ARC relegation
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Rugby (MR) will conduct a post-mortem to understand the reasons behind Malaysia's heavy defeat to Sri Lanka in the Asia Rugby Championship (ARC) relegation-cum-promotional playoff last week. The Bunga Raya squad succumbed to a 59-19 defeat in Colombo and have thus been relegated to ARC Division One (second tier) which will only be played next season. MR president Amir Amri Mohamad said the national body is determined to look ahead and rebuild for the future. "We expect to conduct a post-mortem soon and identify areas we need to improve on," said Amir when contacted today (April 23). "The last few years have been challenging and our priority now is to fix any issues we have and look to improve. "We acknowledge the past, however, we do not want to dwell on it. The goal is to look to the future and rebuild. "This will, however, take time and I hope everyone will remain patient." Malaysian rugby was hit hard during the Covid-19 pandemic as restrictions did not allow for any contact sports to be played for almost two years in Malaysia. The national body was then hit with an embezzlement case in 2022, incurring losses of over RM2 million. Malaysia had won its two previous encounters with Sri Lanka in 2016 (42-17) and 2017 (22-9), the latter securing promotion to the ARC top-tier for 2018. The heavy defeat to them last week thus sparked concern within the rugby fraternity with former national 15s head coach Wan Ibrahim Wan Chik stating that MR must look to swiftly correct issues from the ground up.
New Straits Times
21-04-2025
- Sport
- New Straits Times
Former national coach saddened by decline in Malaysian rugby
KUALA LUMPUR: Revered former national head coach Wan Ibrahim Wan Chik is not surprised to see the national squad being relegated from the top-tier of the Asia Rugby Championship (ARC). Malaysia will play in division one — which is the second tier of ARC — for the first time since 2017 next season after being thumped 59-19 by Sri Lanka in a relegation-cum-promotional playoff in Colombo last week. Malaysia had won its two previous encounters with Sri Lanka in 2016 (42-17) and 2017 (22-9), the latter securing promotion to the ARC top-tier for 2018. Wan Ibrahim, better known as Pak Wan within the rugby fraternity, said he is sad to see Malaysian rugby in the state it is today. Wan Ibrahim is also the former Tunku Mahkota Ismail Sports School (TMISS) headmaster and helped develop many of the players that have represented Malaysia over the past two decades. "To be honest I expected us to lose to Sri Lanka. It is disappointing as we have not lost to Sri Lanka in recent years," said Wan Ibrahim when contacted today (April 21). "This shows that we are getting worse as time goes on. If we do not get our programmes right at the lower levels, this is what happens. "There are still players such as Nazreen Fitri Nasrudin, whom I coached at TMISS 15 years ago, still in this national team. "I am not saying Nazreen is not a good player, but the question is, are the current crop of players not good enough to the point that we have to depend on players from more than 10 years ago?" Wan Ibrahim added that there are a number of reasons behind the decline of Malaysian rugby. He stressed that the national body — Malaysia Rugby (MR) — must address the situation swiftly and take action to correct issues from the ground up. "One reason is that there is very little continuity in the development programmes for young players at the moment. When players from TMISS and Malaysia Pahang Sports School end their studies, they essentially stop playing rugby because they have nowhere to go and very few competitions to compete in," said Wan Ibrahim. "During my time, TMISS players would be channeled to Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) which is the centre of excellence for university rugby in Malaysia. I am not sure what happened to the programme. "Another major issue is that there is currently no national inter-club 15s competition being held. Players need tough domestic competitions each year to develop their game and remain sharp. "Even TMISS used to field a team in the Super League previously, which allowed our young players to get match exposure week in week out during the season. "I couldn't tell you how good the current batch of players from the sports school are because they haven't had the chance to compete in such a league. Age-level competitions or sevens tournaments don't give them the same exposure. "Having a domestic club league would also ensure our national team has a decent selection of naturalised players — usually Fijians — to choose from because the clubs would bring them in and keep them on their books. "For the Sri Lanka match we still depended on Etonia Vaqa Saukuru, a player we have been depending on for the last decade. "At the moment, we only have corporate leagues and state level leagues for 15s competition in Malaysia but the level is not the same as the Super League." MR previously held the Super League, later known as the Malaysia Rugby League, for clubs annually, however, it has not been held since 2019. TMISS would field their under-20 players — who were taking their pre-university courses at the school - in the competition. University sides such as Serdang Angels (UPM) and UiTM Lions would also lock horns with traditional big guns such as Cobra, Negri Sembilan Wanderers and Keris Conlay in the league.
