The history of rugby in Asia dates back nearly as

long as that in England, where the world’s first rugby football union, the RFU,

was established in 1871. In 1879, the first Asian union was founded in the

Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, RFU. Rugby was also being played in Hong Kong and Japan

before the turn of the century. The game maintained its appeal through the

post-colonial era and on 15 December, 1968, ARFU was founded with eight original

members: Sri Lanka, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore

and Thailand.