The Asia Rugby Sevens Series is an annual series of regional rugby sevens tournaments run by
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, ...
featuring national sevens teams. It has been held regularly since 2009 to determine Asia's best men's national team in the sport of
rugby sevens.
History
The first season of the competition began in 2009 with two events happening in Shanghai and Borneo. In the first season,
Japan took out the trophy after taking out the Borneo Sevens and finishing runner up in Shanghai.
Tournaments
Tournaments that have featured as ranking events in the Asian Sevens Series include:
Notes:
''Italics'' denotes tournaments that are non-ranking events not counting towards the annual series championship.
The inaugural 2009 series also included non-ranking events at ''
Kish Island
Kish ( fa, کیش ) is a resort island in Bandar Lengeh County, Hormozgān Province, off the southern coast of Iran in the Persian Gulf. Owing to its free trade zone status, the island is touted as a consumer's paradise, with numerous malls, s ...
'' in Iran, ''
Subic'' in the Philippines, and ''
Brunei
Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by t ...
''.
It was originally planned to use the 2015 Asian Sevens Series as the qualifier for the
2016 Olympics
)
, nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams)
, athletes = 11,238
, events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines)
, opening = 5 August 2016
, closing = 21 August 2016
, opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer
, cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro ...
but the series clashed with the
2015 Rugby World Cup so a separate
Asian Olympic qualifying tournament was held with the final stage hosted in Hong Kong.
[Boost for Hong Kong rugby’s Olympics hopes as city to host Asian qualifiers for Rio]
/ref>
The 2020 series was cancelled before any events were held, due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Incheon, Huizhou and Colombo were originally scheduled as legs of the 2021 series. Due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, all three of those events were cancelled and replaced – initially by two events planned for Dubai, but eventually by just one event in Dubai.
Honours
;By year
;Series titles
See also
*
Asia Rugby Women's Sevens Series
The Asia Rugby Women's Sevens Series is the regional championship for women's international rugby sevens in Asia. Initially contested as a single tournament, the championship was expanded into a two-tournament series in 2014. The competition is sa ...
References
External links
Asia Rugby
{{International rugby union
Rugby sevens competitions in Asia
Recurring sporting events established in 2009
2009 establishments in Asia
Asian championships