ASIA RUGBY EMIRATES SEVENS SERIES 2025 PREVIEW AND SQUADS

The Asia Rugby Emirates Sevens Series (ARESS) returns this weekend with Leg 1 of the 2025 edition taking place from 20-21 September in Hangzhou, China, at the Hangzhou Normal University. Both Hong Kong China Men and Women’s Sevens teams are looking forward to getting the exciting sevens season started – which for 2026 includes an appearance at the National Games at Kai Tak Stadium in November.

The full schedule and results will be published on the Asia Rugby website, with live streams of both days of competition shown on Asia Rugby Live.

This ARESS, there is a change to the format and an increased number of teams, rising from 8 to 12 for the men and women, and the Series will be played over only two legs. The new teams to the Series are the Philippines, Chinese Taipei, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan for the men, and the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia for the women.

In a cut-throat format, the teams are pooled in three groups of four, and only the pool winners and the best second-place team head to the semi-finals (with no quarter-final knockouts).

Hong Kong China Men are in Pool A with Malaysia, the UAE and Uzbekistan, while Hong Kong China Women are in Pool F with Thailand, the Philippines and India.

At the end of the Series only the top-placed men’s and women’s teams will earn qualification to the new World Rugby HSBC SVNS Division 3 2026. On the women’s side this excludes the Japan and China teams, as they are already part of the HSBC World Rugby SVNS Series (Japan will play in Division 1 while China will play in Division 2 and be aiming to get back to the World Championship Rounds in April and May).

Our men are the defending champions of the ARESS, going through the Asian legs without dropping a game last year, while our women finished third just ahead of Thailand and behind the Japanese and Chinese – the latter were crowned Series Champions.

HONG KONG CHINA SQUADS

Men’s Coaches

Jevon Groves - Head Coach
Peter JERICEVICH - Coach
WONG Tsz Kit - S&C Coach
Stephen MUTCH - Head of Athletic Performance

Men’s Players (Club)

1. Michael COVERDALE (HKFC)
2. Alessandro NARDONI (HK Scottish)
3. James CHRISTIE © (HK Scottish)
4. Sebastian BRIEN © (HKU Sandy Bay)
5. Callum McCULLOUGH (HKFC)
6. LEE Ka To Cado (USRC Tigers)
7. Bryn PHILLIPS (Kowloon)
8. Matthew RICKARD* (HKU Sandy Bay)
9. Julien BOURRON (HKFC)
10. Harry SAYERS (Valley)
11. Liam HERBERT (USRC Tigers)
12. FONG Kit Fung (Kowloon)
13. Rory STEWART COX (HKFC)

*potential debut

Women’s Coaches

Andy VILK - Head Coach
Robbie FERGUSSON - Coach
CHONG Shing Hin - S&C Coach
Callum CHIA - Physiotherapist

Women’s Players (Club)

1. AU King To* (Gai Wu)
2. AU YEUNG Sin Yi (USRC Tigers)
3. Chloe CHAN © (Valley)
4. CHAN Stephanie Chor Ki (Gai Wu) 
5. CHONG Ka Yan (USRC Tigers)
6. Jessica EDEN (Valley)
7. Shanna FORREST (Kowloon)
8. LI Nim Yan Melody Blessing (Gai Wu)
9. NAM Ka Man (USRC Tigers)
10. Julia Mibuy MBA OYANA (Kowloon)
11. Natasha OLSON-THORNE © (USRC Tigers)
12. POON Hoi Yan (USRC Tigers)
13. Gabriella RIVERS (Kowloon)

*potential debut

ASIAN RUGBY SEVENS PREPARATION 

Both Hong Kong China teams have consistency in the coaching setup. The men’s Head Coach is Jevon Groves with Peter Jeicevich as Assistant Coach, while on the women’s side Andrew Vilk is Head Coach with Robbie Fergusson as Assistant Coach.

Paul John (Head Coach of the Hong Kong China 7s Programme) said the teams have enjoyed good blocks of preparation leading up to this weekend. The men’s squad had camps and warm-up matches to try and replicate the format in Thailand (competing against Thailand, Singapore and a representative team), and in China, playing in Shenzhen against Tianjin. 

John explained, “We took around 20 men’s players to get away in the heat and play some games in Thailand. It was good just to get a bit of game time against other teams and not play ourselves too much, because that's always comfortable. In some ways, it's always good to play some proper games and have three games in a day. 

“We had two groups training against one another for the last couple of weeks to try and finalise the squad selections, and we were able to pick our squad.”

The team has a strong core group who have represented Hong Kong China over recent seasons, but also have the addition of some young players who did well in the Summer UK LIT Sevens Series: Julien Bourron (HKFC) who has one cap and uncapped Matthew Rickard (HKU Sandy Bay RFC).

“Julien and Matt played in the LIT UK 7s series for us and have been maturing and developing nicely within the squad. It's good to have some young halfbacks pushing everybody. It's also good to have a competition for places, even if it makes the selection job a little bit difficult,” John added.

Hong Kong China Women had a camp and fixtures against tough provincial opposition in China.

John said, “The girls went to Nanjing and played against a few of the provinces – three provinces altogether, which was good competition. They had six games in two days.”

The women’s squad also has similar consistency in selection and is mostly an experienced group that played through last season. Chloe Chan and Natasha Olson-Thorne are co-captains.

The team will have a tough pool game against Thailand, and John commented, “We had some good match practice and getting used to scenarios under pressure, as well as getting used to the speed of the game. It's a tough group, and Thailand has been one of our main rivals over the last couple of years. It will be a really competitive game.”

RETURN OF KEY PLAYERS

Seb Brien and Julia Mibuy Mba Oyana both return to the respective men’s and women’s teams after long lay-offs from injury and are raring to go this weekend. 

Paul John said of having Seb back in the mix, “He played for us in the last LIT Sevens event, and he's a huge member of our squad and our co-captain. He's worked extremely hard to be back, and he's been great in the environment – pushing the youngsters and being really good within the setup. I am looking forward to watching him play.” 

James Christie continues as co-captain for our men’s team.

Seb, who will play in his 26th tournament for us this weekend, said, “The LIT Super Sevens was obviously quite a tough welcome back, considering the average age was mostly University students and a lot of young whippersnappers running around. But it gave me quite a lot of confidence going into the Summer break. The camps make me feel like it's the best I've ever felt coming back into rugby, and I feel like it was probably a needed break, and a chance to recharge the batteries.”

He also got married in his forced absence from the rugby field and has pursued an entrepreneurial endeavour, but he is excited about playing rugby again in the Sevens Series, and knows what is at stake. 

“We need to win to at least have the exposure to Challenger, which is always such a good tournament. But for us personally, we are proud to be the top-ranked team in Asia. It's something we aim for when we do our goal setting at the start of the season – to be the number one side in Asia, that's where we want to be, and that's where we want to stay.”

Of Julia’s return, John added, “She has been really good in the build-up, and the girls have been competitive in training, which is good.” 

Julia missed the whole of last season after injuring her ACL in the Challenger Series in Uruguay in 2024. She only discovered it after the event. “When I was told, I was in absolute disbelief. If I'm being honest, I couldn't believe that happened to me. It was when I had the result in my hand and I saw the report was when all the emotions started flooding, and that was when the realisation hit, so I definitely shed a couple of tears.”

After a long path back to recovery, in which she was also completing her fourth year of university and undergoing rehab, she is very keen to play. “It was definitely more of a mental thing than a physical thing getting back on the field. But as soon as I made that first tackle, it was like everything just flooded back to me. I was confident.”

The Hong Kong-born player, who also competed at track and handball, said of this weekend, “I am really excited. I think the team has been working super hard, especially coming out of pre-season, and I definitely feel confident running out with the girls this weekend. We've been doing a lot of training, a lot of conditioning and a lot of hard work, so I'm excited to see how we showcase our talent this weekend.”

Elsewhere, some niggles have kept out the likes of last season’s Women’s XVs captain PY (Pun Wai Yan), Max Denmark, and Jack Combes, while one of the women’s top try scorers in Sevens, Sabay Lynam, has study commitments in Australia.

The second and final leg of the ARESS 2025 takes place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 18–19 October at the Racecourse Stadium.