Hong Kong will take their first steps on the road to Rugby World Cup 2019 – the first to be held in Asia in Japan, on Saturday, when they kick off their Asia Rugby Championship campaign away to Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur (16.30).

With Japan qualified for the World Cup as hosts, this year’s championship will be contested by Hong Kong and South Korea (second and third on last season’s table) and Division I champions Malaysia in the home-and-away competition.  South Korea beat Malaysia 35-10 in the opening round last weekend to go top of the table.

Hong Kong need to win the Asian Championship outright to advance to the second stage of RWC 2019 qualification, a home-and-away series against Oceania qualifiers Cook Islands.  The winner of that series advances to a four-team knockout competition in the final stage of qualification in France in November.

Jones has kept faith with the squad that started Hong Kong’s warm-up match against the University of Waikato Chiefs Development side on 21 April, losing 49-27, with 13 of the starting 15 players set to open the campaign against Malaysia. 

“There is an element of ‘we’re not sure’ ahead of this match,” said Jones, “but, we’re going in with good preparation and confident that we can perform and cope with anything that Malaysia can throw at us.”

There’s one change in the forwards and one in the backs for Saturday, with lock Jamie Pincott and up-and-coming winger Max Denmark earning starts.  Kyle Sullivan and wing Conor Hartley, both of whom started against the Chiefs Development squad, have moved to the bench for the Malaysia test.

“We have a couple of injuries heading into the campaign but are not making any excuses. We feel that this the best team to start the Asia Rugby Championship and are respecting Malaysia.

“The unknown elements on Saturday are primarily the conditions, which were horrendous last week, and perhaps did not give a fair impression of the quality of the players that were on show from both sides.

“We are very comfortable going to Malaysia and Korea and hopefully can steal a few wins, which would set us up nicely for a feel-good finish at home,” said Jones.

“We are not looking to get ahead of ourselves and know we have to focus on one game at a time and make sure we are playing to our structures and plans. We are not worrying about the outcomes because if we do we will put some pressure on ourselves that we don’t need,” Jones added.

The match will be live streamed on the HKRU Facebook page.

Hong Kong squad v Malaysia:

1. Daniel BARLOW, 2. Benjamin ROBERTS, 3. Dylan ROGERS, 4. James CUNNINGHAM (c), 5. Jamie PINCOTT, 6. Nicholas HEWSON, 7. Toby FENN, 8. Thomas LAMBOLEY, 9. Liam SLATEM, 10. Matthew ROSSLEE, 11. Max DENMARK, 12. Tyler SPITZ, 13. Max WOODWARD, 14. Salom YIU Kam-shing, 15. Jack NEVILLE.  Reserves: 16. Alexander HARRIS, 17. Adam FULLGRABE, 18. Jack PARFITT, 19. Kyle SULLIVAN, 20. Michael PARFITT, 21. Jamie LAUDER, 22. Robert KEITH, 23. Conor HARTLEY.