Sri Lanka and United Arab Emirates kicked off the Asian Five Nations tournament in Colombo Yesterday. On the same day Kazakhstan hosted Hong Kong outfit in Almaty.
Last year Asian champions Japan won all 4 games they were involved in securing 326 points in total. The battle between Kazakhstan, Hong Kong and Arabian Gulf was at high quality where all three teams ending on 2 wins but on bonus points Kazakhstan (2), Hong Kong (3) and Arabian Gulf (4) secured the positions which left Korean rugby in disaster ending last, demoted to division I.
A win will give (5 points), Draw (3 Points), Four or more tries (1 Point), Loss less than 7 points (1 Point) in this tournament.
The following are the brief history of 3 participating outfits.
Japan
This year too Japan looks very strong to retain the trophy and this is an ideal warm up for their Rugby World Cup 2011 tournament in New Zealand in September this year.
The Japanese outfit is coached by legendary New Zealand All Black winger John Kirwan, the team which is known as Brave Blossoms have accepted the challenge and remain the only Asian team to qualify for all the Rugby World Cup’s from its inception in 1987. Japan are grouped in RWC 2011 along with New Zealand, France, Canada and Tonga and are targeting two wins and automatic qualification for RWC 2015 from their RWC campaign.
Japan remains unbeaten in their 12 games in the Asian Five Nations Tournament
Kazakhstan
After consecutive second place finishes in the Asian Five Nations in 2009 and 2010, the lads from Almaty now firmly established in the top flight of the tournament. Their impressive performance last year saw them qualify for the repechage leg of the Rugby World Cup 2011 where they fell to Uruguay in the away match.
The outfit is together for the last 3 month’s in a training camp in Turkey where they played friendly matches with three Russian Super League teams
Hong Kong
Under former Wales Sevens coach Dai Rees, a highly committed Hong Kong XV will take the pitch full of fire in the Asian Five Nations challenging schedule awaiting team as they opened their game against Kazakhstan yesterday in their opening game Hong Kong will be looking to continue their success integrating up-and-coming young local stars like winger Salom Yiu Kam Shing into their first XV.
The Hong Kong players will be giving their all to meet the expectations that come with residency in the top five of Asian rugby. |
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