Elite Asian Five Nations starts
Fri, 23 Apr 2010 22:49
The 2010 Asian 5 Nations kicks off on Saturday with matches between Hong Kong and Korea in Hong Kong and between Kazakhstan and Arabian Gulf in Kazakhstan. Defending champions Japan are on a bye in week 1.
For World Cup qualification is a most important tournament. After 22 Rugby World Cup qualification matches played since 2008, it comes down to the 10 matches of this year’s A5N Top 5 to determine Asia’s sole direct entry to Rugby World Cup 2011. The Top 5 winner will enter Pool A as Asia 1 alongside New Zealand, France, Tonga and Canada. Japan, who have been to every World Cup, are the favourites for direct qualification.
The runners-up will go through a répechage process that involves an initial Asia-Americas playoff match against Uruguay in July 2010. This match will be played in either Asia or Uruguay depending on which team has the higher IRB World Ranking at the time of qualification. Japan is the 13th ranked team in world rugby while Uruguay is ranked 21st. Korea, Kazakhstan and Hong Kong are 24th, 26th and 39th respectively.
The winner of the Asia-Americas match will enter a home and away series against the winners of the Europe-Africa (Tunisia) playoff series. That winner will be the bottom seed in Pool B alongside Argentina, England, Scotland and Europe 2.
Korea are traditionally the second best team in Asia but Hong Kong have beaten them twice in their last seven meetings and ran them close in Seoul last season. Then, too, Kazakhstan beat Korea in Almaty last year to beat Korea into second place. That suggests that the Arabian Gulf side will have a hard time in Almaty this season. The Gulf were promoted to the Top 5 after winning Division 1 last season.
Fixtures, Week 1
Hong Kong vs Korea at Hong Kong Football Club, Hong Kong\
Kazakhstan vs Arabian Gulf at National
University Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Teams:
Korea: 15 Won Yong Kim, 14 Byung Kwan Noh, 13 Chang Whan Bae, 12 Chul Kyu Yoo, 11 Si Won Choi, 10 Youn Hyung Oh, 9 Young Hoon Yang, 8 Kunkyu Han, 7 Kwang Moon Lee, 6 Jeong Min Kim (Captain), 5 Kwon Woo Youn, 4 Young Nam You, 3 Sung Hwan Kim, 2 Jong Wook Kim, 1 Gyeong Won Jeong
Replacements: 16 Sinam Oh, 17 Jong Yeul Park, 18 Oh Yong Kwon, 19 Jeong Min Im, 20 Ki Cheol Shin, 21 Sea Kyung An, 22 Chi Do Jeon
Hong Kong: 15 Colin Bisley, 14 Alex Mcqueen, 13 Rowan Varty, 12 Simon Hempel, 11 Yiu Kam Shing Salom, 10 Keith Robertson, 9 Tim Alexander, 8 Simon Leung (Captain), 7 Mark Wright, 6 Nick Hewson, 5 Nigel Clarke, 4 Charles French, 3 Nigel Hobler,
2 Jon Abe, 1 Pete Spizzirri
Replacements: 16 Alex Ng, 17 Jack Bennett, 18 Renaud Chavanis, 19 Ka Chun Kwok, 20 Hok Ken So, 21 James Kibble, 22 Tom Mcqueen
Match Officials
Hong Kong vs Korea
Referee: Taizo Hirabayashi (Japan)
Assistant referees: Mohammed Azhar Bin Yusof (Singapore), Liu Hao
Kazakhstan vs Arabian Gulf
Referee: Akihisa Aso (japan)
Assistant referees: Taku Otsuki (Japan), Kyosuke "Jimmy" Toda (Japan)
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