The 2018 Asia Rugby Championship was the fourth annual rugby union series for the top-level Asia Rugby nations. The Asia Rugby Championship in 2018 formed part of the World Cup qualifying process and, as such, did not include Japan who had already qualified as the 2019 Rugby World Cup host. Hong Kong and South Korea were joined by Malaysia, promoted from Division 1, to compete in the 2018 series. Other Asian nations played in the lower division tournaments.
The format of the tri-nations series is a double round-robin where the three teams play each other twice on a home and away basis. The team finishing on top of the standings at the end of the series is declared the winner. The 2018 series winner Hong Kong advanced to a cross-regional play-off series against Oceania 4, Cook Islands, to earn a berth in the repechage tournament.
Teams
The teams involved, with their world rankings prior to the 2018 tournament in brackets:[1]
Points were awarded to the teams as follows: Win - 4 points Draw - 2 points 4 or more tries - 1 point Loss within 7 points - 1 point Loss greater than 7 points - 0 points
Try: Lamboley 15' m, 28' m Neville 32' c Slatem 40' c Yiu 43' c, 48' m Pincott 51' c Hartley 61' c J Parfitt 67' c Keith 69' c Con:Rosslee 33', 40', 44', 52', 62', 68' 71' (7/10) Pen:Rosslee 23'
Try: Jang Seong-min 6' c, 18' c Kim Ho-bum 24' c Kim Nam-uk 29' c, 70' c Lee Jae-bok 34' c Jang Jeong-min 56' c Kim Jeong-min 64' m Kim Jin-hyeok 75' c Con:Oh Youn-hyung 7', 19', 26', 30', 35', 57', 71', 76' (8/9) Pen:Oh Youn-hyung 47' Drop:Oh Youn-hyung 68'
