The ARFU AGM and General Council Meeting was held in Dubai, UAE on Sunday December 7, 2014. Indonesian Rugby was presented at this Meeting by Mr Stephen Barber, who is the Union’s Head of International Relations. This meeting was held at the Pullman Hotel, Deira City and there were attendees from the 29 ARFU Member and Associate Member Nations plus representatives from Asian Rugby (ARFU) and World Rugby.

The meeting kicked off with a presentation from Claude Atcher, from World Rugby who is responsible for promoting the 2015 Rugby World Cup via TV in Asia. World Rugby has put forward an arrangement worth US$500,000 to have the various Unions in Asia screen the 2015 Rugby World Cup on ‘free to air’ TV. Indonesian Rugby is currently in discussions with a major network to make this happen.

Morgan Buckley, who is World Rugby’s General Manager Development also made a presentation on the new branding of World Rugby plus next year’s Rugby World Cup which is to be played in England. Indonesian Rugby recently made an application to World Rugby to receive an increased budget of Development Funds in 2015; an announcement on this amount will be made in the new year.

During the meeting Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia were added to the Asian Rugby family, which now totals 31 Member and Associate Member Nations, including Indonesia.

A big announcement during the Meeting was that Indonesian Rugby would host the ‘2015 Asian Rugby Championship Division 3 East Tournament’ in Jakarta in early June. This tournament will see Indonesia, China and Guam playing off for the title.

Indonesian Rugby also announced during the Meeting that it had approval from the Indonesian National Olympic Committee (KOI) to host Rugby Sevens as part of the 2018 Asian Games which will be held in Jakarta in December that year. All the other Asian Rugby Nations were happy with this news.

All in all it was a very successful meeting for all those in attendance.