The Four Asian Tigers are the economies of South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong. Between the early 1960s and 1990s, they underwent rapid industrialization and maintained exceptionally high growth rates of more than 7 percent a year.
The Hong Kong Sevens is considered the premier tournament on the World Rugby Sevens Series competition. The Hong Kong Sevens is currently the seventh tournament on the World Series calendar, and is held annually in Hong Kong on a weekend in late March or early April. The tournament spans three days, beginning on a Friday and concluding on Sunday. The tournament is organised each year by the Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU). The latest Hong Kong Rugby Sevens was originally due to be held on Friday 3, Saturday 4, Sunday 5 April 2020, but was postponed, and then later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby AU and Super Rugby Trans-Tasman. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competition in 2017. Following their axing they played in the National Rugby Championship in 2018 and 2019, replacing the Perth Spirit, and Global Rapid Rugby from 2018 to 2020, an Indo-Pacific competition organised by Andrew Forrest.
The Hong Kong national rugby union team, nicknamed the Dragons, is one of the better rugby sides in Asia outside Japan, and has consistently made the repechages of the Rugby World Cup qualifying. Rugby union in Hong Kong is administered by the Hong Kong Rugby Union since 1952, and competes annually in the Asia Rugby Championship.
The China national rugby union team represents the People's Republic of China in international rugby union. China have yet to make their debut at the Rugby World Cup, but attempted to qualify in both 2003 and 2007.
The Premier League Asia Trophy is a biennial pre-season association football friendly tournament in Asia. The two-day competition was inaugurated in 2003 and is "the only Premier League-affiliated competition" to be hosted outside England. It has taken place every other summer since then in order to avoid conflicting with the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championship. For sponsorship purposes, it was referred to as the Barclays Asia Trophy from 2007 until 2015, after which the Premier League discontinued title sponsorship.
Rugby union in China is a growing sport; however, it is still not overly popular. China became affiliated to the International Rugby Board in 1997 and as of 1 July 2019, its women's XV side was ranked 24th and its men's XV side 80th in the world. Neither the women's team nor the men's team has yet qualified for a Women's Rugby World Cup or a men's Rugby World Cup. However, China has hopes of one day hosting the men's event, and World Rugby has indicated it supports taking the event there.
Aberdeen Sports Ground is a rugby union and football sports ground situated at 108 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Aberdeen, Hong Kong. It is the home stadium of Hong Kong Premier League football club Southern and Global Rapid Rugby rugby union team South China Tigers.
Brett Wilkinson is a South African born rugby union coach and former player. He is currently Head coach for HKU Sandy Bay in the Hong Kong Premiership. He is also scrum coach for the Hong Kong national team and Global Rapid Rugby side the South China Tigers.
Tom Bristow is an English rugby union loosehead prop who plays for Hong Kong Rugby Union. He represented Hong Kong Rugby Union at international level in November 2019. He made his test debut against Belgium national rugby union team and Spain national rugby union team in the Europe test matches.
The Asia Pacific Dragons, also known as APDs, is a rugby union team based in Singapore that played in the Global Rapid Rugby Showcase Series of 2019.
Kelsie Bouttle is a Hong Kong women's rugby union player. She plays as a centre for Valley RFC and the Hong Kong women's national rugby union team.
Global Rapid Rugby is an international rugby union competition that launched a showcase series for six professional teams in 2019, played in locations across the Asia-Pacific region. Rapid Rugby matches are slightly shorter than the traditional 80 minutes and have other variations from standard rugby laws that are intended to increase the speed of the game.
World Series Rugby was a series of rugby union exhibition matches played in 2018 between the Perth-based Western Force and opposition teams from the Asia-Pacific region. It was the forerunner of Global Rapid Rugby, which commenced in 2019. World Series Rugby was created after the Western Force team was axed from the Australian Super Rugby conference at the end of the 2017 season.
The Fijian Latui is a professional rugby union team based in Suva that plays in the Global Rapid Rugby competition.
The 2019 Global Rapid Rugby season was a showcase series for seven rugby union teams played in locations across the Asia-Pacific region. Global Rapid Rugby originally planned a full home and away tournament followed by finals, with eight teams competing in 2019. The competition launch was postponed by a year, however, due to the short time frame following World Rugby approval in November 2018. A scaled-down showcase series of fourteen matches was arranged instead.
Manuma Samoa is a professional rugby union team based in Samoa that plays in the Global Rapid Rugby competition. Founded in 2019 as Kagifa Samoa, the team is backed by the Samoa Rugby Union.
The Pacific Championship Series (PCS) is a professional esports league for League of Legends players competing in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asia. Its creation was officially announced by Riot Games on 19 December 2019, after Garena, which ran the League of Legends Master Series (LMS) and League of Legends SEA Tour (LST), announced in September that it was planning to merge the two leagues. The PCS has ten teams: four from Taiwan, two from Hong Kong, and four from Southeast Asia.
The 2020 season of Global Rapid Rugby ended after only one round of competition due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was not continued. The season was launched in February 2020 as the first full home and away Rapid Rugby tournament, following the shorter showcase series held the previous year.
The China Lions is a professional rugby union team that was formed in 2020 to competes in the Global Rapid Rugby competition across the Asia-Pacific region. It is a joint venture between the China Rugby Football Association and New Zealand's Bay of Plenty Rugby Union.
