Asia Rugby, in line with its gender equality push, and on the back of the recent World rugby Try and Stop Us campaign have updated their rugby competition names to be gender specific.
According to the Asia Rugby website, as of 1 July 2019, each rugby tournament will be specifically named either a Men’s or Women’s competition. The goal is to further “emphasise the equal nature of both men and women in Asia”.
Asia Rugby EXCO member Ada Milby said:
“This is an announcement that highlights where we are as a region. We felt that as part of the efforts to promote gender equity, it was an easy decision to provide parity in the naming structure for our competitions. We’re really proud to be the first regional association to make this announcement.”
Asia Rugby claims that nearly 40% of the region’s participation numbers are female.
Asia Rugby competition names as of July 1 2019
The full list on the Asia Rugby website, but there were some minor duplications. In addition, there is no longer a mention of the Premier Divisions. The word Championship is also removed from all but the top competitions in both the men’s and women’s competitions: being the Asia Rugby Women’s Championship and Asia Rugby Men’s Championship.
The same competitions appear for both women and men, except for the Under 19s, where there is no women’s category. In addition, an Asia Rugby Women’s Division 2 features on the list but none has been active.
Women’s tournaments
- Asia Rugby Women’s Championship
- Asia Rugby Women’s Divisions 1 and 2
- Asia Rugby Women’s Sevens Trophy
- Asia Rugby Women’s Sevens Series
- Asia Rugby Under 20 Women’s Sevens
- Asia Rugby Under 18 Girls Sevens
- Asia Rugby Women’s 7s Qualification Tournament for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo in 2020
The next competition in 2019 to take place is the Asia Rugby Women’s Division 1.
Men’s tournaments
- Asia Rugby Men’s Championship
- Asia Rugby Men’s Divisions 1, 2 and 3
- Asia Rugby Men’s Sevens Trophy
- Asia Rugby Men’s Sevens Series
- Asia Rugby Under 20 Men’s Sevens
- Asia Rugby Under 18 Boys Sevens
- Asia Rugby Men’s 7s Qualification Tournament for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo in 2020
- Asia Rugby Under 19 Men’s Championship
- Asia Rugby Under 19 Men’s Division 1 and 2
Editors note:
Since we launched Rugbyasia247, we have been been trying to use gender-based names from the onset as we found the names to be heavily leaning on the men’s game and the previous names could be very confusing. It’s great to see Asia Rugby make these changes and hopefully the women’s championships will be expanded to match the number of men’s divisions and teams, as well as increased media coverage and transparency of information from the Asian rugby unions and federations on the women’s game.
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