The Hong Kong Men’s and Women’s Sevens squads advanced to the cup quarterfinals after the opening day of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series in South Korea.

After convincing wins in their opening matches, (36-0 over the Philippines and 28-5 over Malaysia), the men fell to hosts South Korea, 31-24, in the final pool match to finish second in Pool B.The women followed suit, losing their last outing against China 22-0, after 38-0 and 28-0 wins over Korea and Sri Lanka; setting up a quarter final clash against Thailand tomorrow(09.00).

The men will play against Sri Lanka in their quarterfinal (10.28),setting up what coach Paul John called, “a different road”, in terms of Hong Kong’s hoped for progression to the final.

“It was a frustrating day in parts. Parts of our game were not as good as they were in Hong Kong [in the opening round of the Series].

“Sri Lanka have two very quick boys on either side and they scored more tries today than in Hong Kong, but they conceded more as well, so it’s difficult to game out really.

“It’s about us though and we didn’t control possession as much as we did in Hong Kong. We will have to have a look at that overnight.It’s a matter of us showing a bit more patience then we did today.It will be a different road tomorrow.

“If we can beat Sri Lanka we will likely face Japan in the semis. So it will be difficult,but a good challenge for us,” John added.

The final loss to Korea left a sour taste in the squad’s mouths according to John; “The boys werefrustrated tolet Korea get out to a quick start.”

Korea led 24-7 at the break after scoring from the opening kick-off to take a 7-0 lead after the conversion.Jack Neville replied with a try a minute later, before the amped up Koreans went on a tear, adding three more tries before the whistle.

“It took us until the second half to show what we could do. Korea are a good side and very difficult to beat when you give them a lead, but we showed some good fight to get back into it,” said John.

As was the case in the opening round final against Japan, Hong Kong’s youth brigade took up the challenge with Seb Brien and Jason Jeyam both collecting tries in the second half, complimenting another battling effort from Toby Fenn as Hong Kong frantically chipped away at the margin.

Korea managed to score mid-way through the half to extend their lead to 31-14 with three minutes remaining, but were put under added pressure by a yellow card in the seventh minute. Jason Jeyam used the extra space well as he collected his brace deep in injury time to bring the score to 31-24 before time finally elapsed.

The Women showed well on their first outing in the two-tournament Asian women’s series, particularly considering their abbreviated build-up, with most of the squad involved in the Women’s Rugby World Cup last month.Hong Kong breezed through their opening matches before losing 22-0 to China to finish second in the pool.

“We wanted to get the girls excited about playing sevens again and get them playing together again. We had a really positive start in thefirst couple of games and our attack speed and defence was good.

“We were disappointed in our last outing, because the girls really wanted to take that game. We knew it was going to be tough against China, but we really struggled in the first half. We couldn’t get out of our own 22, made a few simple errors and couldn’t quite adjust but our second half was much better. There are a lot of pluses from today,” Richards added.

Hong Kong will face off against Thailand in tomorrow’s cup quarterfinal and Richards believes that the Thais, like many of the other teams on the series, have shown significant improvement.

“Thailand are a good side, they come up hot on defence and really attack the ruck. They work hard and keep the ball alive, so we need to get in their faces and get in those passing lanes.

“We have to play well against Thailand. If we can get past them we’ll likely play Japan. We’re looking forward to it and I think the girls from the Rugby World Cup are keen to show what they’ve learned and some of their newfound big game experience,” Richards added.