but eventually lost out to Western Samoa. In 1980 Singapore again qualified for the plate finals. In spite of all the adversities encountered, these achievements by local rugby and the SRU then were momentous indeed and showed that local rugby did flourish in the late 1970s and 1980s. 1990s to 2009 Singapore rugby did not maintain the same levels of achievement into the 1990s. After a heavy defeat at the hands of Hong Kong in 1995, the SRU decided to appoint a full-time officer and four part-time development officers, and instituted a schools programme. Between 1995 and 1998, over a hundred schools took up the sport. Singapore competed in the Asian Rugby Championship divisional tournaments starting in 1998, playing in a round-robin with Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. The Singapore's sevens team began playing in the Commonwealth Sevens with the inaugural tournament being held in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, and the team continued to compete in the Hong Kong Sevens tournament. The Singapore Sevens tournament was set up as a standby for the Hong Kong Sevens, should it have declined under Chinese rule. It formed part of the IRB World Sevens Series in 2002, and from 2004 to 2006 before being replaced on the tour by the 2007 Adelaide Sevens. 2010 onwards The SRU hosted the inaugural World Club 10s rugby tournament in 2014 at the new National Stadium, with eight international club teams competing. The Auckland Blues, captained by Piri Weepu, defeated the ACT Brumbies after double extra time by 10–5 to win the first title. The Singapore Sevens tournament returned as an official event within the Asian Sevens Series in 2013, before a four-year deal was secured to host a leg of the Sevens World Series in Singapore again starting from the 2015–16 season. 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. National teams Men Singapore national rugby union team – competes in the divisional tournaments of the Asia Rugby Championship Singapore national rugby sevens team - competes in the Asian Sevens Series and Commonwealth Sevens Women Singapore women's national rugby union team – first played in 2006, competes in the Asia Rugby Women's Championship Singapore women's national rugby union team (sevens) – competes in the Asian Women's Sevens Championship Competitions International events hosted Singapore Sevens