Malaysia’s triumphant team raring to challenge top gun South Korea and Hong Kong in the Premier Division. ― Malay Mail pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 — A lot of work is going on behind the scenes to ensure that when Malaysia hosts the Asian Rugby Premier Division next year, the Bukit Jalil Stadium will be ready as the venue to witness the historic event.

Rugby will be played there for the first time since its construction in 1996.

The host team qualified for the Premier Division by winning the Division 1 title last year when it was played at Ipoh Padang. It was the second consecutive time they won the title, only this time they decided to play in the Premier Division as the winner will be one step closer to World Cup qualification.

Matches are home and away. The first match will be on April 28 against South Korea, May 5 against Hong Kong and the reverse matches on May 12 in South Korea and May 19 in Hong Kong.

“The winners will play the champions of Oceania, Tahiti most likely at the end of July,” said Malaysia Rugby Union’s tournament director Fahmy Jalil.

“Beating Tahiti will move us into a repechage tournament where we have to play four other teams in a round-robin format to gain automatic qualification to the World Cup.”

It may sound like a tall order to make it into the World Cup. But to imagine a winning scenario: Bukit Jalil stadium packed to the rafters, rugby fans decked out in Malaysian colours and cheering for the common goal.

It’s no mystery that in rugby, the crowd is the “extra man” and Malaysia could sure use the gallery to achieve a historic upset of the odds, if it does happen.

“We’ve got support from Khairy Jamaluddin, he has been pushing our agenda,” said Fahmy on the Sports Minister’s involvement in making this a reality.

“Meanwhile, the boys are now training at NSI (National Institute of Sports). The others are taking a break for Christmas.

“We will have the services of Marc (Le) and Dugro (Dhineshwaran Krishnan) in January. They’ll join us for training together with the other naturalised players.

“Once we have everyone on board, we’ll go full swing in training. Going to either to New Zealand or Australia,” added Fahmy.

The national team plays a friendly match against KL Tigers on December 9.