Asia’s iconic rugby event is set to kick off on the last week of this month. This will be a grueling contest among the top 5 Asian rugby playing countries which as a result the champions will qualify automatically for the IRB Rugby World Cup 2015 in pool B along with South Africa, Samoa, Scotland and USA.
Whilst the runners up in the A5N, will play in the repechage stage that is with America’s play- off loser Uruguay, the winner of Asia, will have to play with the winner of the other play-off between Africa and Europe in order to qualify directly as the repechage team to play in RWC 2015.
World cup qualifiers are played region-wise – Asia, Africa, Europe, America & the Pacific
There are 5 categories in this competition, Top 5 (Division 1 – Division 4). Every year the winner of each division is promoted to the next level and the bottom of each division is demoted to the next lower level. Sri Lanka however, were the champions in Division 1 last year by virtue of which they are placed in the Top 5 for 2014. The Tuskers were unbeaten in 2013 as they beat Chinese Taipei 39 – 08, Thailand 45 – 07 and the mighty Kazakhstan 49 – 18 in Colombo. Therefore, they will be playing in the top tier this year with the hope of finishing 3rd or perhaps the runners up in the group.
The top tier consists of Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Philippines and Sri Lanka
Fixtures
