The 2023 Asia Rugby Women's Championship is the 12th edition of the

Asia Rugby Women's Championship The Asia Rugby Championship for women's national fifteen-a-side teams is a rugby union tournament that has been contested since 2006. Organised by Asia Rugby, there are currently two competition divisions. The championship is also the continental ...

, and took place from 23 to 28 May and was hosted in

Almaty Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. The winner and runner-up will classify for the inaugural edition of the

WXV WXV is a women's international rugby union competition that will be held annually, launched in 2023.The competition consists of three tiers, respectively named WXV 1, WXV 2, and WXV 3. Each tier consists of six teams divided into two pools and ...

. The winner qualifies for WXV2, and the runner-up competes in WXV3. WXV will also provide a pathway to the 2025 Rugby World Cup, with at least the top five non-qualified teams at the end of WXV 2024 earning qualification to the tournament.

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

defeated

in the final and were crowned champions. Both teams will compete in the inaugural WXV competition in October, with Japan set to compete in WXV 2 and Kazakhstan in WXV 3.

Format

The first match will see 15th ranked,

Hong Kong China Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, take on hosts

who are ranked 19th at the Almaty Sports Training Complex in

at 16:00 (+6 GMT). The winner will face

in the final on May 28 at the same venue at 15:00 local time.

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

was initially scheduled to play Japan in the semifinals but withdrew from the tournament. Thus, giving Japan a win by default.

Match officials

On 18 May 2023,

Asia Rugby Asia Rugby, formerly the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU), 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 36 member unions in countries across Asia, ...

announced the appointment of match officials for the upcoming tournament. Referees (2) * Eri Kamimura * Christabelle Lim Assistants (3) * Hibiki Ikeda * Leow Wei Liang * Yuliya Ignatenko Television Match Official * Greg Hinton

Fixtures

Final

Bracket

References

{{Asia Rugby Women's Championship 2023 in Asian rugby union 2023 in women's rugby union

Rugby union in China Rugby union in Hong Kong Women's rugby union in Japan Rugby union in Kazakhstan

Asia Rugby Women's Championship