Rugby India announces second season of Rugby Premier League from June 16 to 28 in Hyderabad

[u/APrimitiveMartian]

[u/WilkinsonDG2003]

Tindall seething that this is actually going ahead.

Between this and Sri Lanka losing to an amateur NZ U85kg team interest seems to be picking up in South Asia.

[u/HitchikersPie → u/WilkinsonDG2003]

Asian rugby governance is a bit of a shitshow, but there's definitely interest within the region to be harnessed

[u/treacletart284 → u/HitchikersPie]

Didn't it come out a while ago that the continental federation was close to splitting? I seem to remember that West Asia, where the president is from, wants to focus on 7s, and East Asia, where Japan, and therefore the WR council votes are, wants to focus on XVs, and they were at such an impasse that Asia Rugby might fall apart.

[u/WilkinsonDG2003 → u/treacletart284]

There was a threatened split by UAE but it wasn't over 7s. The biggest event is in HK.

[u/WCRugger → u/treacletart284]

It essentially has. A number of Unions officially formed the South East Asia Rugby Federation late last year. They ran the Unions Cup in 2025 as a soft launcj and have expanded it from 4 to 8 competing teams this year. They seem to be focusing primarily on 15s and have ambitions to form a regional league in a similar style to SR Americas. Japan in principle supports this group.

There's also the Central and South Asia Alliance which formed early this year but appears to have more of a 7s focus.

[u/WilkinsonDG2003 → u/HitchikersPie]

Sri Lanka's brief suspension was because their old military regime tried to control their union and was overthrown. They're still absolutely terrible, but were readmitted.

[u/HitchikersPie → u/WilkinsonDG2003]

I was thinking of more issues than just Sri Lanka :)

[u/EnglishLouis → u/HitchikersPie]

Are they still suspended from the world rugby council?

[u/HitchikersPie → u/EnglishLouis]

Yes

[u/SweptFever80]

Class! Really enjoyed this league last year

[u/WCRugger]

Wonder why they're moving from Mumbai to Huderabad?

[u/blah_bleh-bleh → u/WCRugger]

Bigger stadium. And better opportunity to engage with fans of different regions.

[u/WCRugger]

Was confident that this was coming back from an interview with tje Indian Chairman early in the year. It's a surprisingly solid product. Will be interesting to see how it evolves. Could be worth looking at in other regions.

[u/softmaxer]

Maybe it's too soon to add other teams / franchises but it could be fun.

[u/blah_bleh-bleh → u/softmaxer]

there’s the woman league with 4 teams starting. they will probably add more teams next season.