The Asia Rugby Championship for women's national fifteen-a-side teams is a

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

tournament that has been contested since 2006. Organised by

Asia Rugby Asia Rugby, formerly the Asian Rugby Football Union, 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, stretc ...

, there are currently two competition divisions — the Championship, and Division 1. The championship is also the continental qualifying tournament for Asian women's teams in the lead up to the

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

, and the WXV.

History

The Asia Rugby Women's Championship began in 2006, the first tournament was hosted by China in

Kunming Kunming is the capital and largest city of the province of Yunnan in China. The political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province, Kunming is also the seat of the provincial government. During World War II, Kunming was a Ch ...

. Hosts, China, won the inaugural tournament and since then,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

has won seven times,

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

five times, with

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

winning one each.

won their seventh Championship title in 2025.

Format

The international test calendar was restructured to accommodate the upcoming WXV tournament.

announced that the Asia Rugby Women's Championship would now be played in two tiers as a pathway to the WXV tournament. The top team in the Championship division will compete in WXV 2 as Asia 1, and the runner-up in WXV 3.

Previous winners

All-time summary

Up to and including the 2024 edition, the following women's teams' Championship division top-3 finishes in tournaments:

Asia Rugby Championship

Division tournaments

Notes: Some sources suggest that the match in Tokyo was for the 2010 ARFU Division 1 XV Championship.http://www.fira-aer-rugby.com/forum2007/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3671&p=39686#p39686 Relegated to the division below. Able to be challenged by the winner of the division below to play in a promotion-relegation play-off. Won promotion, or the right to a challenge play-off for promotion, to the division above. Development tournament organised by ARFU in 2010. The games were 40 minutes long and were not test matches.

Asia Pacific Championship

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arfu Women's Rugby Championship Women's rugby union competitions for national teams Rugby Championship Recurring sporting events established in 2006 Women's rugby union competitions in Asia Rugby union competitions in Asia for national teams 2006 establishments in Asia