Asia rugby results: 14-16th June 2019

The social rugby scene in Asia is quieting down, but the Asia Rugby Championships, 7s events and some professional rugby tours are still on the go. We look at all the Asian rugby results from the weekend of June 15-16 2019.

Asia Rugby Championship – Premiere Division

Hong Kong managed a tight 30-24 win over Malaysia in Hong Kong on Saturday which follows their win last week over South Korea 47-10 win over South Korea in Incheon.

The next two games, see HK travel to Malaysia to play on the 22nd June with the Championship wrapping up in Hong Kong on June 29th as Hong Kong take on Korea at home. See more here about the ARC.

HSBC Women’s Sevens World Series: Biarritz

The HSBC Women’s Sevens World Series wrapped up the final leg in France with the Series winner and relegation still being played for. USA and NZ reached the Cup final, and the US ladies 7s beat the NZ ladies to win the Cup 26-10. However, New Zealand women’s 7s were still crowned the Series champions, their fifth sevens title.

Black Ferns Sevens captain Sarah Hirini told the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series website: “This is a quality USA team and the few basic errors we made proved very costly. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt but we’ve now got to celebrate a world series win which was the goal of ours from the start of the season. USA are one of our rivals but the top six teams on the series are tough at any time. They’ve been there or thereabouts this season so they deserve a Cup title. They played their hearts out this weekend. It’s been an awesome 12 months. It’s been challenging at times as we’ve been through a lot of adversity back home but we’ve used most of the girls on our roster and that’s a huge testament to those girls. We’re pretty happy to be bringing home a series title – our fifth one in seven years.”

Hirini also created history by becoming the first to play 200 matches on the women’s series.

Olympic Qualification 2020

New Zealand, USA, Canada and Australia have all qualified for the 2020 Olympics in Japan by securing the top 4 places. For the final standing see the World Sevens Series website.

China women’s 7s relegated

Much like in the men’s World Sevens Series, in which Japan 7s were battling until the last tournament to survive, the China 7s ladies likewise failed in their bid to stay up. China was relegated from the series after only one year back in the Series as a core team. This was despite reaching their first Cup quarter-final this season in Biarritz losing to NZ 36-0. They went on to claim 7th place by beating Russia 26-12.

However, their main relegation rivals, Fiji, took victory in the Challenge Trophy. The result meant that both teams both finished on 21 points on the log but the Fijians had a better points difference which saw them stay up and the Chinese ladies agonisingly losing out. All the results from the weekend can be seen here.

Super Rugby – Sunwolves

The Sunwolves ended their 2019 campaign with another loss of 10-52 to the powerful Jaguares, to end a disappointing Super Rugby year after some early positive signs to the season. The Japanese based side finished bottom of the ladder and in the Australian conference were 16 points behind the next best team, the Reds.

The season has been full of controversy, from the RWC Japan training squad players dropping in and out of the team as well as the news that the franchise would be dropped from Super Rugby after next season.

Sunwolves 2019 standing Super Rugby

1. Brumbies 48
   

   India U18 Junior 7s champions West Bengal 2019

2. Rebels 34
3. Waratahs 30
4. Reds 28
5. Sunwolves 12

India U18s nationals: 1019 Société Générale Junior Nationals Rugby 7s

India’s U18 finals were taking place over the weekend and the West Bengal boys and girls completed the double winning both 2019 Société Générale Junior Nationals Rugby 7s titles. Congratulations to West Bengal girls and boys.

PIRIKA MOSIRI 7s Sevens

A two day 7s tournament has been taking place in Japan this past weekend, organised by the Hokkaido Barbarians Rugby Club. We could not confirm the final results but a number of Asian teams have been involved including the Malaysian 7s ladies, Thai 7s ladies and Japan 7s ladies. Some results from Day 1 are on the Ragbi Online website.

Did we miss some Asian rugby results and you want us to include them? Get in touch and let us know.