For someone who used to whizz around the skies at 300mph, you would imagine the words inspiring and amazing to be a regular part of Rory Underwood's vocabulary.

The former Tigers and England winger used to cruise high above the earth as an RAF pilot when he played the game during the amateur era.

But it was a couple of recent trips to watch rugby in Asia which have left the 47-year-old both thrilled and excited by a project which he has thrown himself into.

Underwood's playing career spanned 14 years with Leicester and his country and earned him 49 tries in 85 England appearances.

Having swapped Welford Road's playing surface for the board room, the brother of fellow Tigers winger Tony is now giving something back to the sport which has given him so many fond memories.

A few weeks ago, he gave the Indian Sevens team a guided tour of the club ahead of the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

The sub-continent is a part of the World that has become dear to his heart after agreeing to take up a role of an HSBC ambassador for the sport a couple of years ago.

In a continent where rugby is in its infancy, Underwood says he has been greatly encouraged by the growth of the sport and the appetite for the game which he hopes will only keep growing in the years to come.

"For the last two years I have been the HSBC Five Nations tournament ambassador," he said.

"It has 28 teams in it with five teams in the top division. They are currently Japan, Korea, Kazakhstan, the Arabian Gulf and Hong Kong.

"There have been some sights that you wouldn't normally expect to see such as the Lebanon playing Jordan and India playing Pakistan for example.

"I was inspired by what I saw and wanted to become more involved.

"I went back out to India and watched their team play Philippines, China and Sri Lanka.

"I invited the Indian Sevens squad to come and have a look around our facilities in Leicester when they told me that they were coming to visit England.

"The game there is growing all of the time. It's harder to set up a rugby infrastructure with XVs than it is with Sevens and that is why the shorter form of the game is the most popular.

"They are not all stereotypically small and thin either. The Sikhs and Hindus, for example, are solid guys. There are all shapes and sizes.

"A lot of the youngsters getting involved in the sport have come from 'Slumdog' situations.

"There is an organisation out there to get kids from the slums playing rugby to get them out of the cycle. It's called the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (based in the city of Bhubaneswar).

"The person who set it up used to be in a slum and was mentored by someone, got an education and has devoted his life to this project.

"Around 12,000 students go though that and it is for kids who have absolutely nothing. They have a roof, clothes and warm food.

"Some of the things I saw truly inspired me. I did a bit of coaching of the slum kids and it was absolutely brilliant to be a part of.

"I also saw a team of under-16s girls play and was blown away by their skill level.

"They were very athletic and well-proportioned. Their balancing skills took my breath away. They could take on an under-16 team from here with no problem."

Underwood believes it will take some time for any team from Asia's current crop of 26-playing nations to challenge the likes of New Zealand, South Africa and England.

Pitches and facilities are basic and certain teams in India, for example, have to travel 70 hours in a bus to play away games.

It's hardly the base from which to build a team that could reach the World Cup quarter-finals. But in terms of available resources, there is an abundance of riches.

"There are a billion people in India and China, and you are not far off that figure in the Philippines and Indonesia.

"You have four of the most highly-populated countries in the world. If you can tap into that resource, anything is possible," he said.

"It will take a long time for an Asian country to challenge the big guns at a World Cup but there is no reason why the game can't continue to spread and grow over there."