HKRU Sevens coach Gareth Baber will be missing one of his top players for the upcoming Asia Rugby Sevens Series after former captain Jamie Hood was contracted to play for Ricoh Black Rams in Japan’s Top League this season.

The 29-year old scrumhalf signed a one-season deal earlier this summer after Ricoh lost a few specialist scrumhalves to injury ahead of the league’s start. Hood follows in the footsteps of other sevens players to have played professionally in Japan in recent seasons, including Mark Wright and Rowan Varty.

Despite considering himself a sevens player first and foremost, the opportunity to expand his rugby horizons was too much of a lure for Hood.

“It’s a great opportunity to test myself and play at a really good level. A big attraction for me was that the contract is quite short with a planned finish in January. That means that I am free to come back for the Hong Kong Sevens campaign, which is hugely important to me.

“I consider myself a sevens player first and foremost and probably enjoy sevens more than fifteens so to have the opportunity to return and throw my hat in the ring in Hong Kong was a big factor. I’m committed to keeping in the frame for Hong Kong,” said Hood, who is facing a massive adjustment in his transition to Japanese rugby.

“As far as Ricoh goes, I’ve got to try and crack the team first as I am behind a few of the club’s long-serving players, but basically I am just looking at this as an opportunity. I want to enjoy the experience and learn as much as I can while I am here,” Hood added.

Ricoh struggled in last season’s Top League, finishing fourth from bottom and being forced into a play-off to keep their spot in this year’s top flight. The season kicked off last weekend with Hood omitted from the starting 23 for the season opener, a 23-20 victory for Ricoh over NEC. To date he has played 40 minutes across two pre-season games.

“Japanese rugby is much faster than playing in Hong Kong or the United Kingdom in my experience and there is a massive language barrier. All of the training and instruction is in Japanese, as well as the play calls, so I’m facing a steep learning curve,” Hood added.

Hood’s transition has been aided by his experience as a full time athlete in the sevens programme at the Hong Kong Sports Institute.

“My time at the Institute has been very helpful in preparing me. If I hadn’t come from a high performance environment I don’t think I would have been able to make the transition. We have 3-4 sessions each day, which is similar to our programme at the Institute, so that experience has held me in really good stead here. I owe a lot to the HKRU’s coaching teams and programmes.”

Hood understands the realities of taking himself out of contention for the Asian Series, which starts this weekend in Hong Kong.

“Nothing is guaranteed and I know that, but the HKRU has been hugely supportive. They thought it was a good opportunity for me as a player and were content for me to go while keeping a window open to come back.”

And Hood is intent on returning: “Hong Kong is my home, my mates are there, my girlfriend is there. Hong Kong is my country and where I want to play my rugby, but the coaches understood the reasons why I wanted to go and were really supportive.”

HKRU General Manager of Performance Rugby Dai Rees understands Hood’s aspirations to spread his wings, calling his decision to play overseas this season, “bittersweet.”

“Jamie and other players being contracted by clubs outside of Hong Kong is a sign that our professional programmes are having an impact, but losing Jamie even for a short period of time is tough. He is one of our outstanding professional players and a great role model for every pro player and young kid in Hong Kong.

“He is a Cambridge graduate who has thrown in everything to becoming the top professional that he is; we wish him all the best and are communicating with him regularly to support him,” Rees added.

While pleased for the player Rees is mindful of the threat posed by overseas clubs: “There is always a threat that we can lose too many players, especially out of the sevens programme, but that is why we started our professional programmes across sevens and fifteens - to further grow our playing base and incentivize players of real quality to stay in Hong Kong.

“While we don’t want to lose too many players to overseas contracts, seven months in a top-flight league like that in Japan can be a good thing for the players and the Union, as long as long as we can effectively manage requests like this going forward. We haven’t got the strength in depth to lose five or six Jamie Hoods,” Rees said.

“This highlights the need to continue to work with our club structure and make the Premiership the beacon of our performance rugby to ensure that it serves the purposes of the national team and the demands of a new group of players placed on it by those in our professional programmes.

Jamie will remain a training player at the Hong Kong Sports Institute during his stint in Japan.

“Athletes that are playing or going to school overseas can remain a training partner at the SI. Coach Gareth Baber and his team at the Institute monitor training players carefully and if and when Jamie returns on a full-time basis he can then re-engage in the full-time programme at the SI,” Rees added.

“We have to grow our player base to the point that one day we can say it is okay if we lost 10 players to professional contracts. We aren’t there yet at the moment, so there is a potential threat of course, but also a huge opportunity for both players and the Union,” Rees concluded.