The Asian Rugby Sevens Series rolls into Malaysian Borneo this weekend when 12 of the region's top sides to contest the Borneo Sevens title at the Likas Stadium in Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, on Saturday and Sunday with action likely to be just as wild as the animal life on the island.
Borneo is the world's third largest island and an important natural refuge for a tremendous array of plant and animal life including Orangutans, Asian Elephants, Sumatran Rhinoceros and Bornean Clouded Leopards and forms the third leg of the inaugural Asian Rugby Sevens Series.
The success of the Shanghai Sevens in September proved the viability of an Asian Sevens series concept as in China all of the top five teams were in with a strong chance of winning, producing a thrilling weekend of rugby. The Series has also been given a significant boost by the IOC's decision to include Rugby Sevens in the Olympic Games in 2016 and 2020.
In Borneo, the challenge will be even greater as the top teams from Shanghai return to action alongside a rampant Malaysian team that swept last weekend's Brunei Sevens without a loss and is hitting peak form in time for their home event.
The participating teams in Borneo are, in order of their seeding: Japan, Hong Kong, China, Chinese Taipei, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Guam, India, Philippines, Brunei and Indonesia. The seedings in Borneo are the same as those for the Shanghai Sevens and are based on the results from the Asian Rugby World Cup Sevens qualifiers in October 2008.
The teams have been grouped into three pools of four on day one with Shanghai runners-up Japan paired with Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia in Pool A, Hong Kong, Shanghai winners Korea, Guam and Brunei in Pool B and China, Chinese Taipei, India and the Philippines in Pool C.
Exciting tournament
One of the key objectives of the Asian Rugby Sevens Series is to provide a Sevens specific ranking of Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) nations. This ranking will be used for future ARFU tournaments and multi-sport events when applicable and will be a major factor in identifying participating teams from Asia for IRB World Sevens Series events. In the first year of the Series only the Shanghai and Borneo Sevens have been awarded ranking status.
Asian Rugby Sevens Series rankings are based on 12-team tournaments. The rankings see the gold medal winners receive 12 points, the runners up 11 points, bronze medallists 10 and so on down to the last placed team that receives one point.
"The Series started with a bang and the interesting thing that came out of Shanghai was that there were five teams who could have won it," said Jarrad Gallagher, the IRB's Regional Manager for Asia.
"Right from the start it has been extremely competitive and now Malaysia has thrust itself into the mix in Brunei and represents an unknown quantity for the teams that played in Shanghai. We are expecting another exciting tournament this weekend in Borneo.
"We've already got five events in 2009. Next year we'll have India knocking on the door with their test event for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, so we're providing a great platform for our Asian teams to have competitive matches on a regular basis. I believe that in the space of one or two years we will see a marked improvement."
Trio to contest women's event
The Asian Rugby Sevens Series event at the Borneo Sevens will be played concurrently within a wider club based tournament that also features a women's competition involving the national teams of Malaysia, Thailand and India.
Thailand will start the tournament as favourites, having done well over the last year and played at the inaugural Women's Rugby World Cup Sevens competition in March, narrowly losing to Italy and Brazil along the way in Dubai.
They are also the most experienced team of the trio, having played their first international Sevens match in 2000. Thailand have continued to build on their appearance at RWC Sevens, winning the Plate in Hong Kong and finishing as runners up to China in the Asian Sevens Championship on home soil in May, beating Asian powerhouses Kazakhstan along the way.
India are much newer to the international scene after making their debut on the international stage in the Asian Championship and will be eager to gain more experience in Borneo. Guam were due to play but have pulled out, while Kazakhstan and Singapore and focusing on their Women's Rugby World Cup 2010 qualifiers next week.
With thanks to www.scrumqueens.com for information on the women's event.
