Final leg of Asian Sevens to kick off in Beijing today

By Shamseer Jaleel
The top men’s and women’s Sevens outfits in Asia will contest the final leg of the Asian Sevens titles from 18-19 October at the Chaoyang Stadium in Beijing, China.

It is the first time an Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) elite 15-a side or seven-a side competition is being hosted in Beijing since the start of the Asian 5 Nations in 2008.
The makeshift Sri Lanka Sevens squad under Mithun Hapugoda will meet Kazakhstan (11.12 a.m.) and Malaysia (2.08 p.m.) today in the 12-team event, while the women’s team will battle it out with Kazakhstan (6.00 a.m.), Hong Kong (9.18 a.m.) and Singapore (12.18 p.m.) in the eight-team event. According to the current ranking, the men’s team occupy fourth position and the women hold the number five slot.

For the men, the final standings after Beijing will determine the two teams granted places at the 2015 Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens. That tournament will again host the international qualifier for a core team spot on the 2015/16 HSBC Sevens World Series and the right to participate in every HSBC Sevens World Series event next year.
The top two teams, excluding Japan which is already a core team on the world series after winning the qualifier in Hong Kong last year, will be granted direct entry to the 12-team qualifier next March in Hong Kong as Asia’s two representatives. They will be joined by ten teams from other regional qualifiers worldwide in March 2015 at the Hong Kong Stadium.
Hong Kong is currently on 24 points on the series table after sweeping the opening two events in the series in Hong Kong and Malaysia. Japan and South Korea are tied-second with 21 points after both reaching a single Cup Final so far this year. Sri Lanka and China are fourth and fifth respectively on 18 and 16 points.
Soon after the Asian Sevens in China, the inter-club season will kick off at the end of this month. This will be a very tough year for Sevens players as they will not get a break till March next year due to the inter-club tournament first round, second round and Clifford Cup knockout rugby competition.
Women’s
Group A – China, Japan, Thailand, Philippines
Group B – Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Singapore
Men’s
Group A – Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei
Group B – Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Kazakhstan
Group C – South Korea, Thailand, UAE
Group D – Japan, China, Philippines