Japan’s epic Men’s 15s performance in the RWC on Saturday to overcome Tier 1 Ireland inspired their Men’s and Women’s 7s squads on the other side of Asia in Sri Lanka to both win the 2019 Asia Rugby Sevens Series and cap a perfect weekend for Asia’s rugby powerhouse.
Fixtures and Results >>>#ARM7s Men
After winning the 1st and 2nd Series legs in Korea and China, Japan’s women were unbeaten in Sri Lanka, winning the Colombo leg 26-5 over surprise finalists, Thailand who finished the series by reaching their 1st ever final.
Fixtures and Results>>>> #ARW7s Women
Japan’s men bounced back from their failure to make the final in China to overcome their nemesis, Hong Kong 17-12 in the Colombo final.
Japan men’s captain, Jose Seru said “the (RWC) win yesterday really lifted the boys up after we came 3rd in the tournament in China.
We really wanted to build as a team and win this tournament for Japan and for our families back at home”. Commenting on Japan’s Cup Semi Final loss to China 2 weeks ago in Huizhou, which was China’s 1st ever men’s 7s victory over Japan, Seru said “China are really going well with their new coach and staff in the future are going to do some damage”.
Hong Kong once again showed their 7s prowess to reach their 3rd successive men’s final and be series runners up.
Many of the 2019 Asia Series teams now turn their focus to the Asia Qualifier tournaments for the 2020 Olympic Games #AR7sQ , to the Women’s Qualifier in Guangzhou, China on 9-10 November #ARand the Men’s Qualifier back in Incheon, Korea on 23-24 November.
Japan win Asia Rugby Sevens Series Men
Final Standings Men #ARM7s
1 Japan 🏅 2 Hong Kong 🥈 3 China 🥉
4 Sri Lanka 5 South Korea 6 Philippines
7 UAE
8 Chinese Taipei (will be Relegated to AR Sevens Trophy 2020)
Malaysia who won the #ARMST2019 will join the other 7 In #ARM7s 2020
Japan win Asia Rugby Sevens Series Women
Final Standings Women #ARW7s
1 Japan 🏅 2 China 🥈 3 Kazakhstan 🥉
4 Thailand 5 Hong Kong 6 Sri Lanka
7 Malaysia
8 Singapore (will be Relegated to AR Women’s Sevens Trophy 2020)
The Philippines who won the #ARWST2019 will join the other 7 In #ARM7s 2020
https://www.facebook.com/asia.rugby/
They and Japan now qualify for the new World Rugby Challenger Series 7s tournaments to be held on 15-16 and 22-23 February 2020 in Chile and Uruguay, where they and 14 other unions will compete for the top 8 places to compete at April’s Hong Kong leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series in the Qualification Tournament for the 2021 Sevens World Series.
Japan, China and Kazakhstan women, the latter who came 2nd and 3rd in this year’s Asia Women’s Series, also qualify for the equivalent World Rugby Women’s Challenger tournament to be held next April at a venue to be confirmed.
