Comment: A Year of Firsts for Malaysia and Asia

by Wang Shao Ing

It has been a year of "firsts" for women's rugby in Malaysia and Asia.

In May, the first Malaysian representative women's rugby 7s side took part in the Asian Women's 7s in Pattaya together with debutants, Iran and India.

In June, the first Malaysian club side took part in their first 15 aside league - the Guinness Singapore Rugby Women's 15 League 2009 playing two fixtures aways and one fixture at home.

In July, women's rugby in Laos got their first taste of a 15 aside match.

In September, the Malaysian Barbarians played their first international against the Singapore A in Kuala Lumpur.

Without discounting the commitment of the Malaysian players, coaching staff, management and its Union, to have a fully endorsed 15s aside representative team in the same year of their 7s debut reflects a the growth of the game in this region.

This weekend, to complete their first of firsts, with the sanction of the Malaysia Rugby Union, a group of women's rugby fanatics shall be wearing their country's colours in a test match against Singapore at the Yio Chu Kang Stadium.

Comprised mainly of players from the Royal Selangor Club, these women have been picking up game experience from various regional tournaments such as the Borneo 7s, Jonah Jones 7s and Negri Sembilan 7s.

For their neighbours, a Singapore 15 aside national team was only formed eight years after Singapore sent its first representative 7s team to the Hong Kong International Women's 7s in 1998.

The Malaysians would have no doubt benefited from the participation of the Dingos in the Guinness Singapore Rugby Women's 15s League with three other fully formed 15 aside teams as sparring partners.

Five years ago, save for Thailand which has an established provincial schools league and trailblazers, Blacks Rugby Football Club from Singapore having put out a team against a Thai side in 2004, there was no sign of the full format of the game ever becoming a regular fixture in any domestic or regional rugby calendar in South East Asia. The availability of competitive games for womens rugby in this side of the world was a huge obstacle to the growth of the game.

In the past 2 years, Cambodia and Laos have started women's rugby which saw the inclusion of Women's 7s in the South East Asian Games in 2007. With the addition of women's categories in most of the established regional club tournaments (Bangkok 7s, Borneo 7s, Shanghai 7s, Blacks Midnight 10s, Bali 10s, Vientiane 10s) there is plenty of women's rugby being played and to be played.

This weekend's test between Singapore and Malaysia marks a yet another historic moment for women's rugby in the South East Asia and perhaps a good moment to reflect on how much the game has grown here.