Coach Paul John has selected a relatively unchanged squad for the upcoming Korea Sevens, the second of three legs on this year’s Asia Rugby Sevens Series.

John has only made one change from the squad that reached the cup final of the opening leg at King’s Park in August, losing in the final seconds to a reinforced Japan squad intent on re-qualifying for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

Forward Chris Maize returns to the squad, replacing the injured Mark Wright from the first tournament in Hong Kong. John welcomed Maize’s 2017 series debut saying, “Chris brings something different, he’s not quite as experienced as Mark, but he gives us another line-out option and another kick-off option.”

John has also kept faith with his young guns in U20s sevens graduates Jason Jeyam, Hugo Stiles, Fong Kit-fung and Seb Brien, who had an impressive Asian series debut. A core of experienced campaigners surrounds the young tyros, including captain Ben Rimene, former captain Jamie Hood, Maize, Michael Coverdale, Toby Fenn and Salom Yiu Kam-shing.

John has also retained the two premiership players seconded from the HKRU Elite Rugby Programme, Kane Boucaut and Jack Neville, after impressing on their senior sevens debuts in round one.

“We’ve got a decent mix in the squad and the new guys who came in for the opening tournament did well. Jack grew as the tournament went on, as did Kane. It was never a case of us worrying about putting people on or making changes, which is a real positive.”

“It’s good to have a couple of weeks to recharge the batteries. There are a few things we needed to look at regarding our own game and we worked on them over the last few weeks. Now they need to perform as they did in Hong Kong and with that same attitude. Hopefully we’re prepared, but you can never be fully prepared as sevens is so unpredictable,” John added.

The Hong Kong tournament was the first Asia Rugby Sevens Series tournament for John and the opposition suitably impressed him. In South Korea, Hong Kong will top Pool B ahead of the hosts, Philippines and Malaysia, while Japan top Pool A with China, Sri Lanka and Chinese Taipei.

“We will do a few things different now that we have seen every team,” said John.

“With Korea being at home I’m sure they will have a little bit more bite about them and the Philippines got better as the tournament went on last time. Malaysia apparently left a few boys at home in round one, so I expect it will be more difficult this time. We have got to be on top of our game,” he said.

Japan has once again emerged as Hong Kong’s prime threats but a repeat finals appearance will go a long way towards the side’s achieving their goals of qualification for the Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco next year, as well as qualification for the World Series Qualifier at the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens.

The top two men’s sides from the Asian series will qualify for both events next season.

“That’s our aim, our aim has got to be top two. But first and foremost, we have got to have a good day one and we will see how we hold up and hopefully we can push for the tournament again,” said John.

Hong Kong Sevens squad – Korea Sevens

Ben RIMENE (Captain), Salom YIU Kam-Shing, Jamie HOOD, Toby FENN, Michael COVERDALE, Chris MAIZE, Seb BRIEN, Hugo STILES, Jason JEYAM, FONG Kit-fung, Kane BOUCAUT, Jack NEVILLE