LIT SUPER 7s SERIES: NATIONAL PUB 7s PREVIEW

The Hong Kong China Men’s and Women’s 7s teams are preparing for the National Pub 7s tournament, hosted at Harpenden RFC, which marks the third leg of the LIT Super 7s Series. 

The tournament takes place on Saturday 21 June, and will follow the same one-day format as the previous two legs held in Oxford and Shelford. Currently, our men’s team are ranked in third place, while the women’s team sit in second place. 

In preparation for the tournament, the Men’s team have been training at Cardiff Metropolitan University, staying on campus, while the Women’s team have focused their training efforts at the Hong Kong Sports Institute before flying out to the UK on Tuesday night.

Jamie Bourk, who featured in the first two legs of the series, shared “These last two tournaments have been an amazing opportunity for me to play more 7s and put in practice what we do at training. Competing in five games in a single day can be demanding, but it’s also a lot of fun. It’s also been a good challenge having to adapt to the different players joining us for each leg of the tournament, as well as facing various UK-based teams and others like Fiji.” 

Looking back on the Shelford 7s, Jamie noted “Although we didn’t achieve the overall placement we had hoped for, I think as a team we took a step forward and improved in areas that we said we wanted to focus on in terms of technical and tactical, but also in terms of mentality, and sticking it out together for five games of 7s in one day.” 

The LIT Super 7s Series is a recent merger between the UK Super 7s Series and the LIT7s Series, helping create one of the biggest and most prestigious rugby 7s series in Europe. When discussing the upcoming opposition, Jamie added “We’ve faced many strong teams so far, including Shogun, Lilian Amazon, and the Hammerheads, and I expect them to be just as formidable in this third leg. Competing against larger, physical teams has posed a good challenge, but we’ve managed well and demonstrated our ability to adapt to any opponent.”

Joe Knight, who has captained the Men’s team throughout both legs of the tournament so far, commented “Both tournaments have been really well organised by LIT, providing a great opportunity for us as a Dragons (Development) Group to develop and grow. For this upcoming tournament, we’ve focused our preparation on becoming tougher to face and applying pressure on our opponents. We’ve also embraced a Welsh province theme, as we’re spending a week in Cardiff for a training camp.”

Discussing the team’s goals, Joe added “From the start, our aim has been to finish in the top four of the Elite competition, and we’re looking to deliver that this weekend. Although the last leg was a bit disappointing overall, we had some strong individual performances, and we're looking for a bounce-back showing this time around.” 

He also noted the unique challenges of the tournament, stating “It’s a strong tournament this weekend, and one of the unique challenges is that teams frequently rotate players for each leg, which means you often don’t really know what you’re up against until the opening minutes of the game.”

Reflecting on their previous encounter, Joe shared “After losing to the Preseli BaBas, a Welsh-based invitational team, in the last leg – despite having trained with them earlier in the week and winning against them in Leg 1 – we’re hoping to get another crack at them and come out on top this time. They are one of the top Welsh invitational teams, and have helped us out a lot, a good bunch of guys that we’ve formed a nice partnership with.”

To stay updated on the latest from the LIT Super 7s Series, visit supersevensseries.com and catch some of the live action on the NextGenXV YouTube channel.

Women’s Team Management 

Robbie FERGUSSON – Team Manager/Coach 

Peter JERICEVICH – Coach 

Mark KOMAR – Coach/Analyst 

Women’s Squad 

Lucia BOLTON (HKFC) 

Jamie BOURK (HKFC) 

Abigail CHAN (Valley)

Grace HOOD (HKFC)

AU King To (Gai Wu)

Haruka UEMATSU (Valley)

HO Tsz Wun (Gai Wu)

Natasha OLSON-THORNE (USRC Tigers)

HO Jessica Wai On (USRC Tigers) 

NAM Ka Man (USRC Tigers)

AU Yeung Sin Yi Maggie (USRC Tigers)

Joyce TSE (Valley)

Men’s Team Management

Tomos HOWELLS – Team Manager/Coach

Peter JERICEVICH – Coach 

Olivia WITHERS – Physiotherapist

Men’s Squad

FONG Kit Fung (Kowloon)

Camill CHEUNG (USRC Tigers)

Blake ELLIOT (USRC Tigers)

Alexander MOSES (HKFC)

Joshua EUSTACE 

Joseph KNIGHT (USRC Tigers)

Juan Esono MBA OYANA (USRC Tigers)

NG Yuk Shing (Kowloon)

Julien BOURRON (HKFC)

Liam HERBERT (USRC Tigers)

Dylan McCANN (HKFC)

LO Pui Yin Mervyn (USRC Tigers)

Shiven DUKHANDE (USRC Tigers)

Matthew RICKARD (Sandy Bay)

Brendon NELL (Sandy Bay)

Oliver PYLE (HK Scottish)