Hong Kong is within touching distance of winning back the Asian Sevens crown after they swept into the Cup quarterfinals at the last leg of the Asian Rugby Football Union’s Asian Sevens Series in Beijing on Saturday.
Easy wins over Chinese-Taipei, 38-7, and Singapore, 33-0, saw Hong Kong coast into the knockout stage on Sunday leaving head coach Gareth Baber a happy man. “It is important to create a bit of momentum going into the knockout out phase and the two wins did just that. Our first goal has been accomplished and it was pleasing that all our 12 players started a game today,” Baber said. 
Winners of the first two legs, Hong Kong need to finish third to secure the Asian crown, which they last wore in 2012. But Jamie Hood and his men will want to go all the way and do it in style by completing a hat-trick of titles.
While Hong Kong looked good, arch-rivals Japan had to pull out all the stops to get past the Philippines and China in the preliminary pool play. Japan narrowly defeated Philippines 21-19 and then saw off a determined challenge from China winning 26-14.
Japan with 11 changes to the squad that won the gold medal at the Asian Games in Incheon earlier this month couldn’t quite find their rhythm as they struggled to gel together. Although the side included sevens veteran Lote Tuqiri and four other players who took part in the first leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series in Australia – Japan are now a core team – they were pushed all the way by their feisty pool opponents. “It was tough today but I am very happy with the results. We have had no practise time together with this group and three or four of our players were playing their first sevens game, so I am pleased,” said Japan coach Tomohiro Segawa.
South Korea had a far easier time, routing the United Arab Emirates 50-7 before knocking out Thailand 31-7 to top their pool. “I’m very happy with our two games as we had a number of new players for this tournament. I think they played well and we look forward to tomorrow,” said Korean coach Chung Hyung-suk.
Sri Lanka, the other seeded team, also emerged unbeaten after the opening day with wins over Kazakhstan, 31-12, and Malaysia, 26-10. Malaysia, who arrived only a few hours before the action began, looked leaden-footed and seemed to feel the effects of their journey.
Sri Lanka’s new sevens coach Glen Christini said: “The boys have done well with the most important thing being getting those two wins and getting into the quarterfinals. But it wasn’t perfect by any stretch. We set ourselves a few defensive goals more than anything, that was the big gain that we wanted to make today, and we definitely have a bit more work to do there.”
The quarterfinal lineup will see Hong Kong taking on Thailand while Sri Lanka meets the Philippines. In the other half of the draw, Japan come up against Kazakhstan while South Korea meets Chinese-Taipei.
In the women’s competition, favourites China will take on Kazakhstan in one semi-final while Japan meets Hong Kong.
Hong Kong was on the losing end to Kazakhstan again, going down 19-12 in the match to decide which team would top the pool. Hong Kong had earlier defeated Singapore 24-0 and Sri Lanka 24-7.
“Kazakhstan are proving to be a bit of our bogey team. We are much closer to them than we were a year ago but small errors at crucial times are costing us,” said Hong Kong coach Anna Richards.
China went down narrowly, 12-7, to Japan in the crunch match in their pool to finish second. Japan topped the pool and will meet the second-placed finisher in the other pool, Hong Kong.
For full results from day one of the ARFU Asian Sevens Series in Beijing and tomorrow’s schedule please visit: http://www.asian5nations.com/node/970