2019 Rugby World Cup – Asia qualification

Eliminated from RWC qualification

Advances to Round 3

Advances to Cross-regional play-off series

Qualifying for the 2019 Rugby World Cup for Asia Rugby will begin in May 2016 and end in April 2018, where the winner of the qualification process will advance to a cross-regional play-off series against the winner of Round 2 of the Oceania qualification process in June 2018.

The Asia Rugby Championship, governed by Asia Rugby, will be the regional qualification tournament for Rugby World Cup 2019, with Divisions 2, 1 and the Top 3 being involved in the process. The teams competing in the 2016 Divisions 1 and 2 will act as Round 1, with the winner of Division 2 being promoted to Division 1, for the second regional qualification round in 2017. While the teams competing in Division 1, will be contesting against each other to earn the right to remain in Division 1 for the second regional qualification round, with the team placed bottom being eliminated from Rugby World Cup contention.

2017 saw Division 1 act as the main qualification tournament, with the winner advancing to Round 3 and will join Hong Kong and South Korea in the top flight division.

In 2018, the winner of the 2018 Asian Rugby Championship will advance to the cross-regional playoff series against Oceania 4 for a repechage berth.

Ten teams will compete for the 2019 Rugby World Cup – Asia qualification. Shown in parentheses are the teams world rankings prior to the first Asian qualification match on 8 May 2016.

The first round consisted of ten matches between 8 teams. The winner of the Asian Rugby Championship Division 2 (Round 1A), United Arab Emirates, advanced to the second round and was promoted to division 1 for 2017, while the bottom placed team in division 1 (Round 1B), Singapore, was relegated and thus eliminated from Rugby World Cup contention.

On 10 April 2015, Kazakhstan who were meant to compete in the 2016 Asian Rugby Championship Division 1 (Round 1B) withdrew from the competition and Rugby World Cup contention. Singapore were therefore promoted up to Division 1 and Thailand replaced Singapore in Division 2.

The 2016 Asian Rugby Championship Division 2 tournament was contested by four teams in a knockout format. The tournament was held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

...
Wikipedia