Scrum of the Earth /

This weekend sees Asia step up it's efforts to expand the game of Rugby on the continent, with the start of the Asian Five Nations tournament. Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, a side from the Gulf and the mighty Kazakhstan will take part in the inaugural tournament, with the organisers hoping that it will be the start of a rugby resurgence in Asia.

With Japan the highest ranked side at 18th in the world, and the only side from Asia to qualify for last year's World Cup where they exited at the group stages, don't expect the standard to be reaching world class just yet. When we say yet, we mean probably never.

But Japan coach, All Black great John Kirwan, isn't taking his side to sit and wait for their opposition to catch up to their level.

“At the Asian Five Nations, we will not only aim to win but also aim to win overwhelmingly. The whole world is paying attention to Japanese rugby now,” he said, before trying to persuade everyone to pay attention to Japanese rugby.

The round-robin format will begin this weekend, with Japan playing South Korea and Hong Kong taking on the Gulf, then Test matches will be played on five consecutive weekends.