Asian Women’s Sevens Championships

Fourteen women’s sevens teams from across the full bredth of Asia will head to the Royal Thai Navy Stadium in Sattahip, Chonburi this coming weekend.

In the first division the teams will play in two groups. Group A sees hosts Thailand pitted against the traditionally strong Kazakhstan team, Taiwan, the Arabian Gulf and Iran.

Thailand despite a poor performance at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Dubai where they lost in the quarter-finals of the bowl competition will hope to perform well on home turf. Head Coach Suparat Alphate has put together a squad with a blend of youth and experience, “The foundation of Thailand’s success should be laid by their forwards, but the team as a whole should be a match-winning force. They must be united in purpose and should execute their tactics well.”

In Group B tournament favourites, China winners of the bowl final in Dubai and runners-up to Australia at the recent Hong Kong Sevens will take on Hong Kong, Singapore, Uzbekistan and possible surprise package Guam.

Guam drew with Singapore in Hong Kong and only narrowly lost to Hong Kong and under the tutelage of Willie Hetaraka, who also coaches the abrasive Guam men’s team they will not be intimidated by any of their opponents. The Guam squad contains three sisters, the Taguacta’s, Kayla, Stephanie and Cera. A fourth sibling, Kimberly is also on the fringes of selection and trains with the Guam high performance squad.

The teams will play first in round robin formats on Saturday. On Sunday, the top four teams from the two pools will play until the quarter-finals after which the Cup and Plate teams will be determined.

There will also be a second division tournament featuring four first time participants in Laos, Cambodia, India and Malaysia. The winners of this division will be promoted to the first division in the next championships.

Laos and Cambodia warmed up for this weekend’s event with a ten a-side match in Phnom Penh last Saturday which Laos won 15-5. The India squad, some of whom have only recently taken up the game, was only selected this week after the first ever All India Women’s Sevens last weekend in Mumbai.

Notably two teams who would be considered regional heavyweights; Japan, who have cited concerns over H1N1 flu, and Korea who state they have had no time to train for the tournament will both be absent. We do not believe this will diminish interest in this tournament which perhaps even more so than the men’s game in Asia sees the complete breaking down of the barriers of race, ethnicity, religion and financial standing. Rugby provides the best cross-cultural awareness training available; within those 700 square metres everyone is equal.

To view the tournament schedule, click here

Images courtesy: Eduardo C. Siguenza and Andy Young

This article is also available in the following Country/s. Uzbekistan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Laos, Iran, India, Hong Kong, Guam, Chinese Taipei, China, Cambodia, Arabian Gulf