The 2019 Global Rapid Rugby season was a showcase series for seven

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

teams played in locations across the Asia-Pacific region.

Global Rapid Rugby Global Rapid Rugby was an international rugby union competition that launched a showcase series for six professional teams in 2019, played in locations across the Asia-Pacific region. Rapid Rugby matches are slightly shorter than the tradition ...

originally planned a full home and away tournament followed by finals, with eight teams competing in 2019. The competition launch was postponed by a year, however, due to the short time frame following

World Rugby World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...

approval in November 2018. A scaled-down showcase series of fourteen matches was arranged instead.

Teams

Seven teams played in the Rapid Rugby Showcase in 2019: ;Notes

Standings

A modified version of the standard

Rugby union bonus points system Bonus points are group tournament points awarded in rugby union tournaments in addition to the standard points for winning or drawing a match. Bonus points were implemented in order to encourage attacking play throughout a match, to discourage repe ...

was used, with bonus points awarded for: * a team scoring 4 or more tries in a game; * a winning team scoring at least 3 tries more than their opponent; * a losing team defeated by a margin of 5 points or under. Four points were awarded for a win and none for a loss; two points were awarded to each team for a match ending in a draw.

Showcase Series

Showcase opener

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Asia Showcase

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Asia Rd 1

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Asia Rd 2

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Asia Rd 3

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Asia Rd 4

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Asia Rd 5

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Asia Rd 6

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Pacific Showcase

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Pac Rd 1

Pac Rd 2

Pac Rd 3

Pac Rd 4

Pac Rd 5

Pac Rd 6

Bledisloe Showcase

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Other matches

Media coverage

Rapid Rugby had live broadcast television coverage in 18 countries across Asia and Oceania in 2019. Live streaming and

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

services reached additional viewers within some Asia-Pacific countries, while Rapid Rugby's own website provided live streams and highlight packages to other regions worldwide. Nine of the fourteen matches of 2019 showcase series were televised.

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

in Australia and related companies

Star Sports Star Sports refers to several current or former Asian sports networks owned by The Walt Disney Company: * Star Sports (East Asian TV channel) * Star Sports (Indian TV network) * Fox Sports (Southeast Asian TV network) Fox Sports (formerly ESPN ...

and

Fox Sports Asia Fox Sports (formerly ESPN Star Sports) was a pan-Asian pay television network broadcasting in Asia, operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte. Ltd. It also oversaw a version of Sta ...

provided the live coverage. National broadcaster SBS showed all nine of these matches live on free-to-air television across Australia via its

SBS Viceland SBS Viceland (stylised as SBS VICELAND) is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). It began as SBS TWO on 1 June 2009, and was branded as SBS 2 between 2013 and 2016. On 8 April 2017, SBS ...

channel and also streamed through

SBS on Demand SBS is a national public television network in Australia. Launched on 24 October 1980, it is the responsibility of SBS's television division, and is available nationally. In 2018, SBS had a 7.7% audience share. As of 2022, SBS is the lowest ...

. Other Rapid Rugby media partners included

Kayo Sports Kayo Sports is an over-the-top video streaming subscription service available in Australia, owned by Streamotion ( a wholly owned subsidiary of Foxtel). The service offers sports live and on demand from Fox Sports, ESPN, beIN Sports, and Racin ...

in Australia, Sky Sport in New Zealand and

Fiji TV Fiji Television Limited is one of Fiji's main television network. It was founded on 15 June 1994 as the first permanent commercial television broadcasting network in the country, although television had previously been introduced temporarily ...

. ;Notes

References

External links

Rapid Rugby
official website * {{Global Rapid Rugby