Qualifying for the 2023 Rugby World Cup for Asia commenced in June 2022, with three teams competing for a spot in a Regional play-off match against Oceania 2.
Three teams will participate across two matches, with the winner of the Asian Cup semi-final progressing to play the highest ranked participating team Hong Kong in the Asian Cup final.
Originally planned for May 2021, the Championship was postponed due to health concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic,[3][4] and had been pushed back multiple more times to allow ample time for teams to participate safely owing COVID-19.
This also meant multiple restructures of the competition from a round-robin format home and away to just a single round of fixtures played out of a neutral venue.
[5] In April 2022, the format changed once again, following the withdrawal of Hong Kong, setting up a 2-match play-off between South Korea and Malaysia.