 Before Japan and South Korea entered the competition, the other nine teams were split into three round-robin pools, with the winners (China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) then playing another round-robin with the top team (Taiwan) going on to the final pool with Japan and South Korea, which would decide the automatic and repechage qualifying spots.Japan again emerged victorious, beating their previous score against Taiwan in a 155–3 win at home (their largest ever win), followed by a 120–3 scoreline in the away match.South Korea again finished second, also thrashing Taiwan 119–7, and repeated their previous repechage performance, losing 194–0 over two legs to the Tongans.