| Most recent season or competition: 2024 Asia Rugby Women's Sevens Series | |
 | |
| Sport | Rugby sevens |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2000; 25 years ago (2000) |
| Most recent champion |  China (2024) |
| Most titles |  Japan (9 titles) |
TheAsia Rugby Women's Sevens Series is the regional championship for women's internationalrugby sevens in Asia. Initially contested as a single tournament, the championship was expanded into a two-tournament series in 2014. The competition is sanctioned and sponsored byAsia Rugby, which is the rugby uniongoverning body for the region.
The first official regional 7s championship for international women's teams from Asia was held in Hong Kong, played as part of the2000 Hong Kong Sevens tournament. In 2003, ten international teams competed in a separate tournament for the Asia Champions Cup, with six teams progressing to the Hong Kong Women's Sevens. Since then, the regional 7s championships have periodically served as pre-qualifying competitions for the Rugby 7s World Cup, or other sevens tournaments.
Rugby sevens – also known as 7-a-side, or 7s – is a short form of the sport ofrugby union that was first played in 1883. The first (men's) internationals took place in 1973. Aswomen's rugby union developed in the 1960s and 1970s the format became very popular as it allowed games, and entire leagues, to be developed in countries even when player numbers were small, and it remains the main form the women's game is played in most parts of the world.
However, although the firstwomen's international rugby union 15-a-side test match took place in 1982, it was not until 1997 before the firstwomen's international 7s tournaments were played, when the1997 Hong Kong Sevens included a women's tournament for the first time. Over the next decade the number of tournaments grew, with almost every region developing regular championship competitions. This reached its zenith with 2009's inauguralwomen's tournament for the Rugby World Cup Sevens, shortly followed by the announcement that women's rugby sevens would be included in the Olympics from 2016.
Tournaments that have featured as ranking events in the Asia Rugby Women's Sevens include:
The continental title was contested in a single tournament from 2000 to 2012 (Asia Rugby Women's Championship). The Asian Women's Sevens Series was introduced in 2013.
Host Year | China |  Hong Kong |  India |  Korea |  Malaysia |  Singapore |  Sri Lanka |  Thailand |  United Arab Emirates | Ranking events |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Pune | Bang Saen | 2 | |||||||
| 2014 | Beijing | Hong Kong | 2 | |||||||
| 2015a | Qingdao | Colombo | 2 | |||||||
| 2016 | Hong Kong | Incheon | Colombo | 3 | ||||||
| 2017b | Incheon | Colombo | 2 | |||||||
| 2018 | Hong Kong | Incheon | Colombo | 3 | ||||||
| 2019 | Huizhou | Incheon | Colombo | 3 | ||||||
| 2020 c | Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic | |||||||||
| 2021 d | Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic | Dubai | 1 | |||||||
| 2022 | Incheon | Bangkok | Dubai | 3 | ||||||
| 2023 | Incheon | Bangkok | 2 | |||||||
| 2024 | Hangzhou | Incheon | Bangkok | 3 | ||||||
| Total | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 26 |
Notes:
^a A separateOlympic Asian qualification series was held in 2015 with a pre-qualifying stage hosted in Chennai and final stages in Hong Kong and Tokyo.
^b The 2017 Asian Women's Trophy tournament was held inVientiane,Laos
^c The 2020 series was cancelled before any events were held, due toimpacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
^d Incheon, Huizhou and Colombo were originally scheduled as legs of the 2021 series.[1] Due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, all three of those events were cancelled and replaced – initially by two events planned for Dubai,[2] but eventually by just one event in Dubai.[3]
Winners of the Asian Women's Sevens Championship:
| Year | Venue | Winner | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000[a] | Hong Kong |  Kazakhstan | |
| 2001 | Hong Kong | Kazakhstan | |
| 2002 | Hong Kong | Kazakhstan | |
| 2003 | Hong Kong | Kazakhstan | |
| 2004 | Almaty | Kazakhstan | |
| 2005 | Singapore | Kazakhstan | |
| 2006 | Tashkent | China | |
| 2007 | Doha | Kazakhstan | |
| 2008 | Hong Kong | Japan | |
| 2009 | Pattaya | China | |
| 2010 | Canton | China |
| Year | Venue | Winner | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Pune | China | |
| 2012 | Pune |  Fiji | |
| 2013 | two rounds | Japan | |
| 2014 | China | ||
| 2015 | Japan | [4] | |
| 2016 | three rounds | Japan | |
| 2017 | two rounds | Japan | |
| 2018 | three rounds | Japan | |
| 2019 | three rounds | Japan | |
| 2020 | Not contested | ||
| 2021 | Dubai | Japan | |
| 2022 | three rounds | China | |
| 2023 | two rounds | Japan | |
| 2024 | three rounds | China | |
Notes:
| Year | Host | Winner | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 |  Laos | South Korea | [5] |
| 2018 |  Brunei | Malaysia | [6] |
| 2019 |  Indonesia |  Philippines | [7] |
| 2021 |  Qatar | United Arab Emirates | |
| 2022 | Indonesia | Singapore | [8] |
| 2023 | Qatar | United Arab Emirates | [9] |
| 2024 |  Nepal | Philippines | [10] |
| Year | Host | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Malaysia | Kazakhstan |
| 2011 | Malaysia |  Papua New Guinea |
| 2012 | Malaysia |  Australia |
| 2013 | China | China |
| 2015 | Malaysia | Japan |
The2007 South East Asia Sevens was held on 6 October 2007 inSingapore.
| Teams | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thailand | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 245 | 0 | +245 | Qualify for Cup final |
| Singapore | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 171 | 26 | +145 | |
| South Korea | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 40 | 125 | –85 | Qualify for Plate final |
| Laos | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 32 | 118 | –86 | |
 Cambodia | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 24 | 113 | –89 | Qualify for Bowl final |
| Cambodia Select | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 130 | –130 |
Bowl Final
Plate Final
Cup Final