Hong Kong’s men and women enter the final round of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series in Sri Lanka needing strong performances to qualify for next year’s Rugby World Cup Sevens.
A new-look women’s side featuring four changes will take on Japan, Sri Lanka and South Korea in pool play.
Debutants Jessica Ho Wai-on, Agnes Chan Tsz-ching and Poon Hoi-yan all come in to the side, as well as the returning Sham Wai-sum, replacing Au Yeung Sin-yi, Steph Chan Chor-ki, Lindsay Varty and Yuen Lok-yee.
After a condensed build-up due to the Women’s Rugby World Cup, Richards admits her side are still underdone but are better positioned than in the first round of the women’s competition in South Korea three weeks ago.
“The girls have been training pretty well so we are looking forward to it,” she said. “The first leg was pretty difficult and we didn’t have a great lead into that; I think the girls are more comfortable in the sevens environment now
“Are we sevens fit? Probably not, but the girls have trained well since we came back. What I liked about the first tournament was that we got a good look at the top three so we will be going into this tournament better for that.”
Richards is looking forward to having Sham back in the side and is excited to see World Cup representatives Ho and Chan, as well as the youngster Poon, in action: “I thought [Agnes] played really well at the World Cup so it will be great to see what she can do on the field for us.”
Japan are leading the men’s competition and are the likely winners, while Korea sit two points ahead of Hong Kong after triumphing on home soil three weeks ago with Hong Kong had settling for third.
It means Hong Kong must finish at least two places above South Korea this weekend or things will be awfully tight.
“If we don’t play Korea and don’t win the tournament, then we need to finish two places above them,” coach Paul John said. “We need to play Korea at some point, whoever wins that game will be ahead in the head to head. The bottom line is that if we do really well and win the tournament we will be okay, if we meet Korea along the way that will help us provided we get a positive result from it.
Hong Kong face Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines in pool play, with South Korea and Sri Lanka awaiting on the other side of the draw.
“It means that we get a really good game on day one [against Japan] and depending on what happens at the end of day one is where we cross over,” John said. “It all depends on how the tournament goes and with sevens you can never really predict it so every game is a massive game for us now to put us in a good position for day two.
“Sri Lanka will be stronger being at home and China gave us a difficult game at the end of the tournament last time.”
Debutant Max Denmark comes into the side after recently figuring for the Hong Kong U20s at the World Rugby Junior Trophy. Denmark replaces Fong Kit-fung, who sustained an ankle injury in the last round, in what is the only change to John’s squad.
“Max has been training with us for the last three or four weeks,” John said. “He’s very quick and he’s played wings for the under 20s, he’s a back-row forward as well as playing wing. He gives us a bit of speed out wide and I’m looking forward to watching him play. He’s powerful and he chases kick-offs really well, so it’s exciting for him.”
additional reporting, images: hkru