Japan sweep Asian Rugby Five Nations

 

Roar Guru

By Harry Kimble, 26 May 2009 Harry Kimble is a Roar Guru

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 Asian Rugby Five Nations, International Rugby, Japanese rugby, Kazakhstan rugby, Korea rugby, Rugby Union, Singapore rugby

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The second Asian Rugby Five Nations tournament concluded over the weekend, with Japan showing its regional superiority by going through the series undefeated.

The five nations in the premier Asian division – Hong Kong, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea and Singapore – all played one round against each other over the previous five weeks. For this year’s matches, Singapore, who won last year’s first division, came in at the expense of last year’s five nation’s bottom team, Arabian Gulf.

Not only was Japan undefeated, but it was the only team to have more points for than against, such was its dominance of the other sides.

Strangely enough, Japan’s closest game was last weekend’s 45-15 victory over Singapore who failed to win a match. Japan’s coach, former All Black, John Kirwan, experimented with new players.

The big disappointment was Korea, who finished third, beaten by both Japan and Kazakhstan, and was lucky to beat Hong Kong, 36-34. The writing was on the wall for Korea from the opening game when Japan beat them, 80-9, the biggest loss suffered to the Cherry Blossoms.

The surprise package was Kazakhstan, which was tipped to cause some upsets last year but did not live up to its potential, finishing second last.

This year was different.

After suffering a humiliating 87-11 loss to Japan in the opening game, they went on to win the next four. The only stumble like Japan, was a close 22-19 win over Singapore. However, Kazakhstan’s four top players were unavailable for the Japan and Singapore games due to their commitments to the Russian national rugby competition in which they play

Hong Kong played to expectations and one of their players, Adam Raby, with seven tries, was the tournament’s top tryscorer.

For next year’s Asian series, Singapore will be relegated to the first division whilst this year’s winner of that division, Arabian Gulf, will be promoted.

The big question mark this year has been over Hong Kong and Singapore due to the number of ex-pats playing. There have been discussions as to their eligibility, significantly, if their players have served the three year residency needed to be able to play.

With the Arabian Gulf set to be in next year’s series, the same will be asked of its players who are virtually all ex-patriates. However, the Arabian Gulf RFU is being re-organised and a larger number of local players will become available for selection.

Nation Pl Win Draw Loss For Agst Diff Bonus Total
Japan 4 4 0 0 271 41 230 4 24
Kazakhstan 4 3 0 1 88 139 -51 0 15
Korea 4 2 0 2 37 144 -7 3 13
Hong Kong 4 1 0 3 10 126 -16 3 8
Singapore 4 0 0 4 40 196 -156 1 1