The limitations on competitive sport are impacting on domestic and international competition… So Hong Kong’s men’s and women’s sevens squads will travel to the United Kingdom and Portugal for an extended training camp in May and June.
Training and warm-up matches against international opposition are needed ahead of multiple upcoming tournaments including:
In August the World Rugby Challenger competition for spots on the World Sevens Series.
The 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou in September, where Hong Kong’s men’s sevens squad will be the defending champions, after taking Gold in Jakarta in 2018.
Hong Kong’s women finished in fifth place in Jakarta, and hope to improve on that in Hangzhou
The Rugby World Cup Sevens in South Africa in mid-September. Hong Kong have qualified for every Rugby World Cup Sevens since the inception of the world championship in 1993.
And lastly but by no means least the 45th Hong Kong Sevens in early November, the first international sevens competition to be held in the city in over 3½ years.
Hong Kong Rugby Union General Manager of Performance Rugby James Farndon said, “As restrictions tighten in Hong Kong, many of the HKSI’s High Performance Sport Programmes are taking their athletes and coaches overseas to ensure that they can maintain competitive advantage for their respective international competitions.
“Given the importance of our upcoming international tournaments we believe that it is essential for the teams to have optimal preparation including matches against premier international competition. The HKSI’s approach to financially support overseas training camps like this is highly appreciated by the HKRU,” added Farndon.
Training in the United Kingdom also offers the opportunity to enter both teams into two events on the upcoming UK Super Sevens Series, which takes place in May and June across the United Kingdom, and into long-running international sevens warm-up tournaments in Lisbon and the Algarve in Portugal. These will mark the first international competitions for the teams since November 2021.
The squads will depart on 6 May and will base at Loughborough University, an institution highly regarded for its sports programmes and with excellent training and rehabilitation facilities for the duration of the trip.
Additional reporting, images: HK Rugby