2016 Asia Rugby Championship
The 2016 Asia Rugby Championship, or ARC, was the second annual tri-nations series for top-level rugby union in Asia and the twenty-ninth continental championship for the Asia Rugby nations. The Asia Rugby Championship replaced the former Asian Five Nations in 2015, with only three nations competing in the top division instead of the previous five. The 2016 series included Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea. Other Asian nations competed in the lower division tournaments. The format of the competition is a double round-robin where the top-three nations play each other twice  on a home and away basis. The team finishing on top of the standings is declared the winner, and the bottom-placed team is subject to a promotion-relegation play-off against the winner of Division 1, although this opportunity to challenge is often declined. Teams. The teams involved, with their world rankings prior to the 2016 tournament in brackets: Top 3 Challenge. Division 1 winners, Malaysia did not choose to participate in the promotion-relegation play-off. Meaning the composition of next series of the tournament remains the same.