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Teams from nine Asian countries will compete in Shanghai's first major international rugby Sevens tournament this weekend and the pools have been announced.

Some of Asia's best rugby sevens players will showcase their skills over a two-day tournament in Shanghai and it is the first stop on the IRB’s Asia Rugby Sevens Series that also heads to the likes of  the Carlton Sri Lanka Sevens and Brunei.

This weekend’s Series opener sees Japan, Sri Lanka and Thailand competing in Pool A, Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore in Pool B, and in Pool C hosts China, Chinese Taipei and India meet.

India, who will host next year’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi, are the lowest ranked side out of the nine competing nations.

But this Series will form part of their preparations for the Games next year, and their captain Nasser Hussain is aiming to finish higher than their ranking suggests.

"We are the lowest ranked team at number nine and any finish higher than our ranking is good. In fact we are aiming to finish in the middle," Hussain said.

"We would be playing five or six matches with the pools redrawn twice more. This tournament offers us the first platform for our Commonwealth Games preparations because of the Sevens format," added the 29-year-old.

Sri Lanka announce squad

Sevens has become popular in Asia, predominately through the annual Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament every year and of course the looming Olympic Games decision.

The Asian Sevens Series will give countries the chance to play competitively against other international countries in a similar way to the IRB Series.

Sri Lanka, another of the countries participating, announced their squad for the tournament on Wednesday. 

They have whittled down a 27-member training squad to just 12 players and will be captained by Ashen Karthelis.

Sri Lanka squad: Ashen Karthelis, Nuwan Hettiarachchi, Lasith de Costa, Samantha Lakshan, Chamara Liyanage, Saliya Handapangoda, Dilip Selvam, Suranga Pushpakumara, Neranjan Wickramaratne, Shao Fernando, Dushantha Lewke and Ravi Jayasuriya.