Asian Five Nations set for take-off

John Kirwan: Japan coach

Japan will kick off the newly-branded Asian Five Nations this weekend as favourites for the title, but coach John Kirwan insists they have the utmost respect for their opponents Korea.

The Japanese begin their campaign away in Incheon and then face matches against Hong Kong, Arabian Gulf and Kazakhstan.

The ground-breaking new tournament set-up features all 25 member Unions of the Asian Rugby Football Union in competition across Division One, Division Two and Regional Competitions alongside the elite Top Five tournament featuring the continent's best.

As Asia's top-ranked side, Japan is likely to use the tournament to blood younger players in preparation for the Pacific Nations Cup in June. However, they have also included a number of their foreign-born players in the backs, including fly-half James Arlidge, centre Ryan Nicholas and full-back Bryce Robins.

"While the most important thing is to win this inaugural tournament, we will also take the opportunity to bring on a number of younger players," said Kirwan.

With several Korean players now playing in Japan's corporate league, the Koreans will be looking to capitalise on their new-found familiarity with their opposition in the hunt for an opening round upset in front of their home fans at the Incheon Munhak Sports Complex.

The second match on the opening day of the Asian Five Nations features Arabian Gulf and Asia's second-ranked side, Hong Kong in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.

Hong Kong will be missing powerful number eight Semi Iafeta and exciting full back Colin Bisley for the opener. Iafeta has still not recovered from a torn hamstring he picked up in the warm-up games against Tunisia earlier this month, while Bisley is sidelined with a knee injury.

"Undoubtedly, we will miss them both but thankfully we have enough cover as there is depth in this team," said coach John Walters.

"It was decided that we give both Semi and Colin as much time as possible to recover before the crucial games against Japan and South Korea.

"We have benefited hugely from the two warm-up games against Tunisia as well as the one week of training we spent in Tunis before the away game. This past week has been spent refining and fine-tuning our game-plan. The guys are confident," Walters added.

It is unlikely to be an easy test for Hong Kong, however, with the Arabian Gulf side boasting a wealth of experience.

"Our aim will be to surprise Hong Kong, who - on paper - are more fancied than us," said Gulf captain Diarmud O'Malley.

"We will be very competitive as we have a good crop of players from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Britain."

Hong Kong are currently ranked 30th in the IRB World Rankings, while the Arabian Gulf lies 16 places behind them in 46th position and the last time the two met, in May 2004, Hong Kong squeezed to a narrow 12-5 victory.

Hong Kong will host the remaining side, Kazakhstan, on May 3.

Fixtures:

April 26:

South Korea v Japan

Arabian Gulf v Hong Kong

May 3:

Japan v Arabian Gulf

Hong Kong v Kazakhstan

May 9:

Arabian Gulf v South Korea

May 11:

Kazakhstan v Japan

May 18:

Japan v Hong Kong

South Korea v Kazakhstan

May 24:

Kazakhstan v Arabian Gulf

Hong Kong v Japan