The Hong Kong Rugby Union has today confirmed that women’s sevens coach Anna Richards has announced to the players and management that she will be leaving her role as head coach of the women’s sevens team. Richards, who has been engaged as women’s sevens coach since 2013, will see her contract through to its completion in December 2017.

“Anna has worked hard since coming on board at the very start of our presence as an elite sport at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, helping to structure and implement a programme that has had significant benefits for women’s sevens in Hong Kong,” said Mr Dai Rees, Chief Rugby Operations Officer at the Hong Kong Rugby Union.

Alongside her 24-year club career, primarily in her native New Zealand, Anna earned a record 49 caps for her country. In 20 years as part of the national women’s team, the Black Ferns, from 1990, she was central to four Women’s Rugby World Cup victories (1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010) with only two lost games in 54 appearances, latterly as captain.

In her first national coaching appointment, as Women’s Sevens coach for Hong Kong, Anna has overseen solid performances in regional World Rugby and other competitions, with the team regularly placing third or fourth in Asia. High points of her tenure included a tournament win at the 2015 China Sevens on the Asia Rugby Sevens Series, and competing in the 2016 World Rugby Olympic Repechage in Dublin, securing 10th place out of 16 of the ‘best of the rest’ in the world.

“With her amazing playing accomplishments, burnished now by some significant experience in high performance coaching gained at the Hong Kong Rugby Union and the Hong Kong Sports Institute, Anna will find significant opportunities available for her in the new world of professional rugby in both the 15’s and 7’s formats,” said Rees.

“We thank her for her dedication and commitment to developing our women’s game during her tenure and wish her the utmost success in her future endeavours.

“The elite sevens programme at the Hong Kong Sports Institute remains vital to the overall development of rugby in Hong Kong and we look forward to announcing new directions for the programme in the near future,” Rees added.