Asia Rugby Emirates Women’s Championship 2025 – Your Definitive Guide

The Japan Rugby Football Union will be hosting the Asia Rugby Emirates Women’s Championship 2025 (AREWC) at JAPAN BASE outside Fukuoka, on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, from May 15 – 25th as they look to again defend their title against Hong Kong China and Kazakhstan. 

JAPAN BASE is Japan Rugby’s purpose-built, high-performance national rugby training centre, and they have also hosted a number of other Asian union national representative and development teams since they opened the facility.

Asia Rugby President Qais Al Dhalai said of the tournament, “The Asia Rugby Emirates Women’s Championship is more than a competition — it is a testament to the unstoppable rise of women’s rugby in Asia. Asia Rugby remains steadfast in its mission to empower women and inspire the next generation across our continent.

I take this opportunity to wish all the teams, match officials, and management the very best for the tournament. I would also like to extend my best wishes to the Japanese women’s team as they prepare for the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 – with their recent performances, I am confident they will make us all proud.”

There are no permutations from this tournament as far as we know, as there is no WXV in 2025, but teams will be competing to be Asia’s top women’s team, and World Rugby ranking points are important for future World Rugby tournaments

Asia Rugby Emirates Women’s Championship 2025 Schedule and Format

The AREWC 2025 will be played in a three-match, round robin format, and all fixtures are fully capped matches. All three games will have a local kick-off time of 1PM at JAPAN BASE.

According to the latest World Rugby Rankings, Japan is currently placed 11th, Hong Kong China are ranked 17th, while Kazakhstan are ranked 18th. (Please to the rankings listed by Asia Rugby in their article are incorrect as they have used the Men’s rankings.)

• Round 1 Thursday 15 May –  Japan v Kazakhstan
• Round 2 Tuesday 20 May – Hong Kong China v Kazakhstan
• Round 3 Sunday 25 May – Japan v Hong Kong China

We will be publishing match previews closer to the match days.

You can follow the results from AERWC 2025 here.

Japan Sakura 15s – AREWC 2025

The Japan Sakura 15s side is expected to give an opportunity to a number of emerging players as the Sakura Fifteen coaching team looks to build further depth ahead of the Rugby World Cup 2025 in England, said the JRFU.

The squad made history by beating the USA Eagles for the first time in April 2025, away from home. They will be heading to RWC 2025 but have a number of tests confirmed in 2025, including against Spain and Italy

The JRFU announced the wider training squad for the tournament.

Japan Sakura 15s Squad – AREWC 2025

Hong Kong China Women – AREWC 2025

Photo Credit- HKCR – Women’s Head Coach Lewis Wilson

Lewis Wilson has stepped into the interim role as Hong Kong China Women’s Head Coach while HKCR recruits for a new full-time role. His new-look coaching staff consists of the domestic Women’s Club Coaching Officers (WCCOs) and they are working alongside Head of Women’s Rugby Performance Royce Chan.

Wilson said, “I am honestly privileged to work with this team. As a group, the girls are outstanding, and I love working with them. They’re also pretty inspirational, balancing their off-field work commitments with the on-field stuff, and I am personally grateful for the opportunity to lead them into this championship.”

For Pun Wai-yan (PY), who was also capped by HKCR in Sevens this season, and was captain of the team in last years AREWC hosted in Hong Kong, she added; “We are still looking for good performances, as we cannot say we are looking at development and rebuilding but then don’t deliver the performance. I don’t want to mention the results, but I hope we play well and that the results will follow. We need to focus on how we play our way and in our style and to show that we are a competitive team in Asia, and around the world.”

You can read more in our collaboration piece with HKCR for the upcoming championship, as we hear from both Head Coach Lewis Wilson and team captain PY (this was done before the final squad was released).

HKCR Women’s 15s Squad – AREWC 2025

Kazakhstan Women – AREWC 2025

Photo Credit – HKCR / Asia Rugby – Kazakhstan lost both matches in 2024

For the Kazakhstan women, there has been very little news since they played last year’s championship in which they lost both games, which meant they missed out on WXV, and as a result, they have not played an international test in 12 months.

We will bring more if additional information is announced by the team.

Match Officials – Asia Rugby Women’s Championship 2025

Asia Rugby’s Referee Manager Dilroy Fernando will oversee the entire team of officials, with Asia Rugby Competitions Manager Ghaith Jalajel acting as Tournament Director

It should be noted that Asia Rugby has only listed one AR for two of the matches *.

How To Watch Asia Rugby Emirates Women’s Championship 2025

The hosts confirmed that all tournament fixtures will be free of charge for spectators at JAPAN BASE, and our understanding is that all matches will be broadcast via Asia Rugby and possibly RugbyPassTV for international audiences.

For broadcasts in Japan,  the schedule is as follows:

• Round 1 – Live catch-up on J-Sports On-Demand. A recording of the match will also be aired on J Sports 2 on Friday, May 16 at 19:00 JST.
• Round 2 – Live via Asia Rugby YouTube, Asia Rugby Facebook and RugbyPass TV.
• Round 3 – Live via catch-up on J-Sports On-Demand (with a recording of the match following on J Sports 1 on Tuesday, May 25 at 19:30 JST.

Asian Rugby Tournament News 2025

• Japan Sakura Fifteens and Brave Blossoms 2025 Domestic Fixtures Announced.
• Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025 Pools Confirmed – Japan in Pool C.
• Pacific Nations Cup 2025 Details Announced.
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