An impressive 19-7 win over Japan was the highlight of an undefeated opening day for Hong Kong’s men in round three of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series in Sri Lanka.Hong Kong’s women also performed well on Saturday, posting wins over South Korea and Sri Lanka before going down to Japan 17-5.

Paul John’s side set up a quarter-final meeting with Chinese Taipeiwith their victories over the Philippines [21-17], Malaysia [34-5] and Japan.

They will likely need to go through Sri Lanka to reach the final, while their rivals for a top-two spot in the series, South Korea, will have to beat Japan to feature in the decider.

The top two in the series qualify for the Rugby World Cup Sevens, with Hong Kong needing to finish top spots ahead of South Korea in this round to guarantee themselves second spot behind Japan.

“It’s good to beat Japan but it’s a big day tomorrow, the second day is the most important,” John said.

“We are happy with the day but we know it’s a big task tomorrow to keep it going.The boys have played well against Japan the few times that we’ve played them [in this series] and we’ve had a good look at them now.

“We’ve lost a couple of line-outs against them that have proved costly in the other games and in a game of sevens there’s such fine margins and turnovers are huge.Little things have a massive influence and can change the momentum very quickly. We kept our possession today and we used it wisely.”

Hong Kong handled the muddy conditions better than Japan, with Seb Brien, Salom Yiu Kam-shing and Toby Fenn the try scorers. Yiu benefited from the slick work of his teammates to cross twice in the win over Malaysia, while Jamie Hood and Michael Coverdale were also among the tries in that match.

Debutant Max Denmark held his own on his first day of competition and John will have a full compliment of players for day two.

“All 12 boys were available for the last game and we came through. Fingers crossed it stays that way,” he said.

“Max carried the ball really well, he didn’t have as much time as he would have liked, but it is always hard in your first tournament. We are pleased with Max, he’s been excellent in the environment.”

Hong Kong’s women started their day with a 38-0 win over Korea, with Aggie Poon Pak-yan scoring two tries and Colleen Tjosvold, Natasha Olson-Thorne, Agnes Chan Tsz-ching and Ivy Kwong Sau-yan also getting in on the act.

Kwong and Tjosvold also found the line in a tight encounter with Sri Lanka that ended with a 10-5 win to Hong Kong.

It was vice captain Natasha Olson-Thorne who dotted down in the loss to Japan.

Hong Kong take on Thailand in the quarter-finals as they look to match their fourth-placed finish of last round.