Hong Kong Win the Women’s Seven Series 26-15 over China
It’s the first ever Cup win for the Hong Kong women in the Asia Seven Series
Absolutely brilliant rugby from Hong Kong including a hat-trick from Aggie Poon in the final
Tag: 852sport
Olympic Sevens Qualifier Tickets Onsale 14 August
An anonymous source has informed bc that tickets for the Women’s and Men’s Olympic Rugby 7s Qualifier tournament on the 7-8 November at the HK Stadium will go onsale on the 14th August from Ticketflap (www.ticketflap.com).
That 24 hours before the tickets are scheduled to go onsale there’s been no announcement to public is another example of the Union unable to organise a piss-up in a brewery. This despite rugby’s renowned enjoyment of the personal waitress service and beverages that many Wanchai and Angeles’s breweries offer.
While tickets prices were released weeks ago, $360 (2-day pass), $200 (1-day pass), there’s been no information from the HKRFU or Asia Rugby about the number of tickets for public sale. There should though, be more than the 3000/day HK Sevens tickets that the public were allowed to maul over in March.
The women’s qualifier is an 8 team event, the first part of a two leg qualification process that culminates in Tokyo on 28-29 November 2015. Teams competing in the women’s event are China, Hong Kong, Japan, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Uzbekistan.
The men’s tournament is a 12 team event featuring with the men’s winner claiming Asia’s sole automatic slot amongst the 12 teams participating in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where Rugby Sevens will make its much anticipated debut.
Teams competing in the men’s event are Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Thailand and China
Asia Rugby Sevens Olympic Qualifier
Date: 7-8 November, 2015
Venue: HK Stadium
Tickets: $360 (2-day pass), $200 (1-day pass), under 12 free from Ticketflap
More info: Public sale from 14 August
Emma Lai Captains Women’s T20
All-rounder Emma Lai has been named as Captain and will lead the Hong Kong women’s cricket team at the inaugural East Asia T20 to be staged in Incheon in mid-September. As well as Hong Kong, the tournament features sides from Japan, China and hosts Korea.
Hong Kong Women’s Squad:
LAI Wing Ki, Emma (Captain)
TO Yee Shan, Pull (Vice Captain)
CHAN Ka Ying, Kary
CHEUNG Hiu Ying, Lemon
HO Hung Ying, Annie
HO Sin Yee, Cindy
KWOK Lau Ping, Amanda
LEE Sheung Yu, Patricia
WONG Ki Yan, Corn
Jenefer DAVIES
Mariko HILL
Ruchitha VENKATES
Shanzeen SHAHZAD
Reserves
Aneekah STYLES
CHAN Sau Ha, Charlotte
Leslie DELAPENA
Marina LAMPLOUGH
Officials
Najeeb Amar – Coach
Chris Pickett – Assistant Coach
Hong Kong beat Namibia by 83 Runs
Man of the Match Irfan Ahmed blazed to a 55-ball 98 after which left-arm spinner Nadeem Ahmed took a career-best 5 for 12 to lead Hong Kong past Namibia by 83 runs. The victory ensured Hong Kong’s qualification for the playoff stages and they remain in the hunt for a World T20 spot. Namibia, despite the loss, will join them.
Hong Kong, having been inserted, got off to a rapid start – 56 in five overs – before Gerrie Snyman dismissed Jamie Atkinson in the sixth over. Two 30-plus partnerships took the total past 120. Irfan then added 54 runs off 26 balls with Babar Hayat for the third wicket, but both batsmen fell in the space of two balls. Hong Kong were 178 for 5 in the 18th over, but could only add 19 runs in the remaining 15 deliveries to finish on 197 for 8.
Irfan had four sixes and nine fours to make his career best score, but fell fell two runs short of what would have been the first century of this year’s World T20 Qualifier.
Namibia openers Snyman and Stephan Baard began the chase strongly. They took the score to 23 for 0 in the second over but fell in successive balls to seamer Haseeb Amjad. Then captain Tanvir Afzal got rid of Raymond van Schoor in the fifth over but Namibia kept up with the asking rate and were 101 for 4 in the 11th over. But they lost the remaining six wickets for only 13 runs.
Nadeem was at the centre of that collapse, strike twice in 12th and doing it again in the 14th over to run through the tail and bring the match to a very quick and abrupt finish.
The win saw Hong Kong finish second in Group A and they will play Afghanistan on 21 July – the winner of that game will qualify for the WorldT20 in India in 2016 and move into the semi-finals of the tournament. The loser gets another chance against the fourth place team.
Additional reporting: Cricinfo
Hong Kong Beat Nepal by 5 Wickets at World T20 Qualifier
Hong Kong finally found their groove at the ICC World T20 Qualifier to beat Nepal by 5 wickets with 5 balls remaining.
Hong Kong, who won the toss and elected to field, tore the Nepal top order apart with Haseeb Amjad taking two wickets in his first over and a third in his second to have Nepal 17/4 after 6.1 overs. Hong Kong’s bowlers kept the pressure up taking wickets regularly and bowling Nepal out off the last ball of the twentieth over.
Man of the Match Haseeb Amjad with those three early wickets was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4-for-16 from his four overs. Aizaz Khan was miserly conceding just 7 runs in four overs while taking the wicket of Regmi.
In reply Hong Kong lost Irfan Ahmed early but calm batting from Anshuman Rath on debut and top scorer Nizakat Khan steadied the nerves and Hong Kong cruised to their first win after a loss in game 1 and a no-result in game 2.
Hong Kong Cup of Nations – 13, 17, and 21 November 2015
A new four team round-robin tournament will make it’s debut this November, when Portugal, Russia and Zimbabwe will travel to Hong Kong for the 15-a-side Hong Kong Cup of Nations. The World Rugby-sanctioned competition will feature six matches played over three days.
HKRFU General Manager of Performance Rugby Dai Rees is enthusiastic about the new tournament, saying, “We have been working with World Rugby for a number of years to formalise a competition for Performance 2 and 3 level unions to ensure that we play the number of annual matches recommended by World Rugby for countries that aspire to reach the Rugby World Cup. To reach the recommended seven to ten annual fixtures, we need to combine our Asia Rugby Championships campaign – which is four matches in the spring – with touring or bringing in international teams for home tests in November” said Rees.
Russia is the highest ranked team competing in the Cup of Nations, currently 19th in the World Rugby standings. Portugal is ranked 23 and Zimbabwe is 28. Hong Kong moved up two spots to 25th in the world after finishing second in the Asia Rugby Championship.
“The teams invited to participate in the Cup of Nations are all ranked between 18 and 28 in the world, providing broadly competitive fixtures for Hong Kong. All four teams, including Hong Kong, advanced deep into the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualification process but ultimately didn’t qualify. We want to play against teams just outside of the Rugby World Cup rankings, which is about the top 16 or 18 teams in the world, to engage in meaningful and competitive fixtures,” Rees added.
“From a scheduling standpoint, the rugby calendar will look quite good for Hong Kong with the Cup of Nations giving us another opportunity for intense competition at the beginning of our domestic season and six months on from the Asia Rugby Championship” Rees continued. “We want to push and pressurise ourselves over the coming few years. Having three teams of the calibre of Russia, Portugal and Zimbabwe coming here six months after the Asia Rugby Championship window will help us maintain intensity as we increasingly focus on our high-performance 15s programmes,” said Rees who sees these opportunities as really important for Hong Kong in preparation for the qualification campaign for Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan.
Match schedules and venues will be announced in due course.
Lets hope that a similar women’s tournament can be arranged on the same dates!