This July is encouragingly looking to be very busy for Test match rugby in Asia, as the 2025 Unions Cup fixtures have been confirmed to take place at the Kaohsiung National Stadium in Chinese Taipei on 9 and 12 July 2025.
The Chinese Taipei Rugby Football Union confirmed the schedule for the 2025 Union Cup, which was launched in 2024 to help revitalise the development of rugby in East Asia and provide the test nations more regular game time. The debut tournament featured Singapore, Chinese Taipei and Thailand, and the Philippines men have joined the 2025 edition of the tournament.
There will be two rounds, effectively a semifinal and a final and third place match taking place at the 55,000-seat Kaohsiung National Stadium in Taipei.
It is also thought that in Taipei, two additional nations could be signing on for an expanded future edition of the Nations Cup: Guam and Indonesia.
There is a newly formed Southeast Asian Rugby Federation (SEARF) which has seven founding countries: Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. Thailand currently chair the SEARF, but we have been told the Unions Cup does not fall under the SEARF (which would make sense as Chinese Taipei is not part of it)
The idea for the Unions Cup is that it will be hosted by different countries on a rotating basis.
President of the Chinese Taipei Rugby Football Union Jeffry Chang said at the time of the signing, “We want to improve the rugby between these Asia rugby nations in the fifteen-a-side game. This agreement will look to improve East and Southeast Asia rugby to be stronger and better. Currently, most competitions are held in central or middle Asia, so this will allow for more game time….We want to unite our regions, and we need to improve and grow together, so I appreciate everyone coming together to help start this initiative.”
Photo Credit: Singapore Rugby Union were the 2024 Champions
2025 Union Cup Schedule
Singapore are the defending champion, and recently, a Singapore XV defeated the HKCR Dragons XV in a friendly. Singapore are ranked 56th, the Philippines is ranked 57th, Chinese Taipei are 63rd, and Thailand are 75th.
Chinese Taipei were runner-up in 2024, and Thailand finished third.
It should be noted that the Taipei Baboons social club have also promoted on social media that they are playing the Guam national team on July 8th, the day before the Unions Cup gets underway.
Wednesday July 9 2025
- M1 Singapore vs Philippines – KO 16:00
- M2 Chinese Taipei vs Thailand – KO 18:00
- M1-Loser vs M2-Loser (3rd Place Playoff) – KO 16:00
- M1-Winner vs M2-Winner (Final) – KO 18:00
Local times shown. See the latest World Rugby rankings here.
Photo Credit – Chinese Taipei Rugby
Unions Cup 2024 Results
- Singapore 30-8 Thailand
- Thailand 18-12 Chinese Taipei
- Singapore 16-19 Chinese Taipei
SEARF Women’s 15s Championship Coming in 2026
Rugby Asia 247 was at the formation of the tournament in Singapore in 2024, and it was expressed that they hoped to have a women’s edition in the future.
On 21 June 2025, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed at the COBRA club in Malaysia for the SEARF Women’s 15’s Championship 2026 between the Philippines Rugby Football Union, Singapore Rugby, and Malaysia Rugby.
The new tournament won’t be taking place at the same time as the Men’s Unions Cup, it seems, but the 3 national teams will play a round-robin format in February 2026, with Malaysia set to host the first edition
Photo Credit – Malaysia Rugby
How To Watch the 2025 Unions Cup
The 2024 edition of the Unions Cup was livestreamed on social media, and we expect the same for the 2025 edition.
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