This would not have been a theme for this space but for a recent news report on what could possibly decide which teams remain in the division.
Asian Rugby’s division one competition will be held for a week at the Kiara Royal Selangor Club field from Sunday, pitting defending champions Sri Lanka, the Philippines, last year’s last placed division one finisher Singapore and last year’s division two champion Malaysia.
By the way, Singapore gets another bite at the cherry only because of the withdrawal of Kazakhstan, the team they lost to 32-12 in the playoffs last year. News reports said the central Asian country could not travel to KL due to financial constraints.
Why is it not an exactly competitive competition?
Assuming that Sri Lanka wins all three matches and the Philippines two, either Malaysia or Singapore could remain in the division with just one win, plus minus some match points.
For the teams, the main challenge is to be able to put up a decent show despite having to play three times within eight days. And the kind of weather Malaysia has been through since some weeks ago makes it tougher.
The players would have to be super-fit to last the 80 minutes of each match.
But the Philippines looks to be taking no chances, with the squad reportedly training under hot, difficult conditions at a high performance centre in Silangan, Laguna. That this basically non rugby-crazy country should have such a centre for the sport says volumes for the determination of their rugby officials.
However, how far they hope and expect to go from here is anyone’s guess because the Volcanoes, as the Philippines’ players are called, are miles and miles behind Japan.
Singapore seems upbeat to be pushed back up into division one and brings 12 debutants in a squad of 25.
There are suggestions that the position of coach Inoke Afeaki is under threat and that the national union may let him go if Singapore doesn’t do well in KL.
Afeaki has a wealth of experience as a player and led Tonga at the World Cup in Australia in 2003.
We don’t know what his brief was when asked to coach Singapore but one doesn’t think that even one of the world’s best coaches would be of much help to a team of Singapore’s standards.
If division one is played on a round-robin format, the one for the top three continues to be a home-and-away format, with the first match reaffirming the reality of how far ahead of the rest Japan is.
South Korea, once a threat to Japan’s superiority, leaked 85 points without reply playing away. This scoreline despite Japan playing without its first choice line-up.
Japan travels to Hong Kong this weekend.
Since the Asian championship started in 1969 on a biennial basis followed by on an annual basis from 2008, Japan has won 23 out of 28 times. The rest went to South Korea.
There was a period in the 80s when the Koreans were on top of Japan, winning the title in 1982, 1986, 1988, and 1990. They won again in 2002 after a lapse of 12 years but otherwise it has been all Japan in Asia.
Kazakhstan too showed glimpses of being a threat, coming second in Asia in 2009 and 2010 but since the last few years it has been going downhill.
There is no doubting that World Rugby, and from there by extension the Asian union, is doing much to make rugby a truly global sport with good following but Asia simply has too many deficiencies to be able to be a serious threat to the rest of the world.
As proven by the results all these years, the gap within the continent itself seems insurmountable to anyone intending to challenge Japan’s domination.
But expect some rugby enthusiasts to still be at RSC Kiara, there’s no doubt about it, and for those who do make it there, just enjoy the game.