Asia Rugby held its end of year Council meeting and AGM in Hong Kong on Sunday 19 November, where the Council member unions unanimously supported, in principle, the proposed, new Indo Pacific Rugby Championship from early 2019.
Asia Rugby’s newly elected President, Aga Hussain said: “Not only am I delighted to be elected as the Regional Association’s President for the next 2 years, where will see the Rugby World Cup in Japan , but I’m equally delighted to be able to lead our organization at such an exciting time as we embrace Andrew Forrest’s kind philanthropy and futurist initiative to bring professional rugby to Asia to complement Japan’s Top League; the Super Rugby Sunwolves and Hong Kong’s High Performance environment.
The IPRC will without doubt help us achieve our strategic mission to grow the Asian Rugby Family by promoting the values and healthy lifestyle of rugby; inspiring the youth of Asia to a lifelong association with Rugby and creating and driving an environment for sustainable success”.
Asia Rugby’s World Rugby Council member, Trevor Gregory said: As I said in Tokyo 2 weeks ago, when Andrew Forrest so kindly funded a gathering of potential stakeholders, this is an amazing opportunity for us in Asia to really develop the game at the performance level.
World Rugby, Australia Rugby and Asia Rugby are all on the same page and are all now working closely together to try to ensure the success of this visionary project, which can provide a stepping stone for many of our participating unions up to the next level.
‘This will affect not only the players, but for the unions themselves; their infrastructure and support, including administration and match officiating. It is even more exciting that we are talking about not just the men’s game, but also women’s competitions as well, both at 7’s and 15’s”.
Asia Rugby’s new female representative to the World Rugby Council, Ada Milby commented “the IPRC will provide a pathway for existing and would-be professional players in Asia to progress the sustainability of talent.
Asian players such as Filipino teenager, Marcus Smith, playing with the Aviva Premiership Harlequins in England, will from 2019
have the opportunity to ply their trade across their home continent and we will see the creation of our own Rugby Heroes, male
and female, whom Asian fans of the Game can follow and aspire to be”.
Asia Rugby will continue to collaborate with IPR where appropriate for the benefit of rugby throughout Asia and monitor with interest the forthcoming IPRC club location selection process.
Indo Pacific Rugby Championship
– Tokyo Meeting
