Taiwan Manages to Hold On to Right to Host Rugby Event|中方再打壓 我主辦U19橄欖球賽險取消

Taiwan is scheduled to host the Asia Rugby U19 Championship in December. However, during an Asia Rugby council meeting on July 28, China proposed revoking Taiwan's right to host the competition. Though in the end, Taiwan was able to maintain the right, but China is also challenging Taiwan's bid to host a U18 tournament next year.


In 2016, Chinese Taipei rugby players participated in the Asia Rugby U19 Championship. They finished in second place with a win over Sri Lanka, giving Taiwan the right to host the 2018 Asia Rugby U19 Championship in December. However, on July 28, during an Asia Rugby council meeting in Kazakhstan, China attempted to revoke Taiwan's right to host the tournament, though it ultimately failed.

The calendar has already been set, because this tournament will take place this year. It (China) is not even competing, so there's really no point in doing this, in discussing this. The Asia Rugby council's competition committee believed there was no need to discuss this, so it (China) backed out of discussing this matter.

The four participants in the Asia Rugby U19 Championship are the four top-ranked Asian teams in the U19 category. They are Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, South Korea and Sri Lanka. China sought the right to host the event even though it wasn't ranked in the top four, which was why the proposal was rejected. Although Taiwan will host this event as scheduled, its bid to host the U18 championship was similarly challenged by China. The competition committee had already approved Taiwan as the host of 2019 to 2021 U18 championships. Last week, China applied to host, and is attempting to secure the right to host the event for five consecutive years.

This is very obvious. They have had some actions, as well as some inferences, or else why would they seek five years? We only sought three years, and you want five. I think they will continue with these technical interferences.

Asia Rugby has advised Taiwan and China to first discuss the right to host the U18 tournament for the next three years, and then report back on the progress in August. China previously succeeded in revoking Taiwan's right to host the 2019 East Asian Youth Games.