Friday Oct 31, 2008 -
At a press conference held at HSBC’s Headquarters in Hong Kong, former All Black & current Japan Rugby Union Head Coach, John Kirwan plus former Scottish and British & Irish Lions Captain Gavin Hastings both pledged their support for rugby’s growth & development throughout Asia, including Indonesia.
HSBC are the major sponsors of the Asian 5 Nations (a5n) Rugby competition which involves all 28 Member Nations of the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU). Earlier this year, Indonesia won the HSBC a5n Regional Tournament that was played in Jakarta after defeating Lao 23-11 & Cambodia 55-3. These victories have earnt Indonesia a promotion into the HSBC a5n Division 3 Championship alongside the Philippines, Kryghistan & Guam in 2009.
John Kirwan was very passionate about his feelings on the development of rugby in Japan as well as the rest of Asia and these feelings were also shared by Gavin Hastings who thought it would be marvelous to one day see teams such as Indonesia competing on an equal standing to the more established teams of world rugby including the All Blacks.
