[1][2] The game is popular among expatriate workers from Commonwealth countries, such as the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand – and there are at least twenty such rugby clubs founded on this basis.

While there has been some take up amongst other groups, and a long-standing effort to involve Singaporeans, including by Australians Peter Randall and Andrew Blades in the mid 1990s,[2] progress in growing the game has only been gradual.

Between 1945 and 1991, a regiment of New Zealanders was based in Singapore, and during those years they dominated the game to the extent that when they left, the Singaporean rugby scene almost fell apart.

The true local Singapore rugby story began in 1972 when the national team under the presidency of ASP Niaz Mohd Shah who led the charge to send a team made up of only of Singapore citizens to partake in the 3rd Asian Rugby Football Tournament in Hong Kong.

In 1977, under the presidency of renowned lawyer, Mr Howard Cashin, Singapore, as an all citizens national team, took part in the SEA Games held at Kuala Lumpur and emerged runner up with a silver medal.

Later in the same year, also in Kuala Lumpur at the 6th Asian Rugby Football Tournament, the Singapore all-Asian nationals team emerged third in Asia against all odds, after Japan and Korea.

[4] Singapore competed in the Asian Rugby Championship divisional tournaments starting in 1998, playing in a round-robin with Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia.

[6] The Auckland Blues, captained by Piri Weepu, defeated the ACT Brumbies after double extra time by 10–5 to win the first title.

[8][9] When Japan's Sunwolves team gained admission to the Super Rugby competition for the 2016 season, they agreed to host some of their home matches in Singapore at the National Stadium.

[10] Senior men's competitions: Junior men's competitions are played by schools over three age groups: At the 2019 Rugby World Cup to be hosted by Japan, in addition to the nine venues located in that country, one venue each from Singapore and Hong Kong have also been proposed to host five matches respectively.