Taiwan rugby eyes return to glory days and challenging Asia’s elite with Unions Cup in Singapore next month

The annual competition, which will become a four-nation event next year with the addition of the Philippines, will be hosted by each union in rotation.

Jeffry Chang, president of the Chinese Taipei Rugby Union, said he hoped competing with the other countries would mean “the strength of Chinese Taipei 15-a-side rugby will be gradually improved”.

“After about 12 years of trough, Taiwan’s rugby is in a state of reconstruction,” Chang added. “We are doing our best to rebuild the spirit of rugby.”

Singapore Rugby Union president Sunny Seah said the genesis of the Unions Cup came on the sidelines of the World Rugby conference last year during the World Cup.

“A few of us got into a discussion at the last World Cup and decided to do something to revamp the 15s tournament format in our region, to help raise the standards and popularity of the game, and felt a tournament would help to do that, Seah said.

A lot of focus and funding in the sport, he said, had gone into the seven-aside format level since it was now an Olympic sport, but 15s was the “format we all love”.

Also, the Asian teams of various levels were finding it expensive to play against one another because many of the same standard were located far apart, with the result that many unions were being drained by travel costs alone.

“We felt that the Asian conference had become unwieldy and costly and so a revamp at a subregional level would be beneficial,” Seah said.

Taiwan, Seah said, had also been keen to drive the Unions Cup because although they belonged to the North Asia zone with Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea, the Taiwanese felt their neighbors had forged too far ahead in standard and they needed to redevelop their game at a more comfortable level.

The Taiwanese are now 65th in the latest World Rugby rankings, well below Japan (12), Hong Kong (24) and South Korea (30).

On the other hand, the other three countries in the Unions Cup are ranked 40th (Philippines), 54th (Singapore) and 78th (Thailand).

Also, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, teams had been deprived of international competition, with Singapore and Chinese Taipei both having played their last internationals in 2019.

“Because of Covid, we have not participated in any international competition for years,” Chang said. “Our government didn’t allow us to go out, and if we did, the union had to take all the responsibility and risks.

“And since we could not participate, we were demoted. We are definitely not in the top four in Asia now.”

The aspiration for the Unions Cup, Seah said, was for it to grow into a six-country tournament to become the equivalent of the Six Nations – which involves England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland – or football’s Asean Championship.

Chang said the goal of catching up with Hong Kong and South Korea was probably beyond Taiwan at the moment.

“The goal at this stage is to improve the strength to the same level as Sri Lanka and Malaysia,” he said. “Give us more time, and I believe we can do it.”