Hong Kong’s Men’s Sevens team completed their best showing at the fiercely competitive Coral Coast Sevens, reaching the Bowl semi-final after winning three of five matches in Fiji.   

Despite failing in their pre-tournament target to become the first international side to reach the cup quarterfinals, Hong Kong made team history in Fiji, winning their first ever day one match, doubling that total later in the day, and claiming as many wins in a single outing (3) as they had in previous trips.

What was most encouraging about the performance is that the squad featured several players returning after lengthy absences, with six of the team getting their first action in months and in some cases years.

Hong Kong missed the cup quarterfinals on points differential after a loss to Tabadamu, who advanced to the cup final against Police, yesterday, routing Hong Kong to this morning’s bowl competition.  They beat Outriggers 5-0 in the quarterfinal with match captain Lee Jones claiming the game-winning try. 

It was another close run affair in the semi final with Hong Kong losing 14-7 to the Fijian national fire services team, previous cup winners at the tournament. Fong Kit-fung scored for Hong Kong.

The tight results show how competitive the tournament is, a fact attested to by Dai Rees, Chief Rugby Operations Officer at the Hong Kong Rugby Union who travelled with the national squads to Fiji.

“The standard has gone through the roof here. The women’s comp is definitely up there with the World Series and series qualifier in Hong Kong, so it was a good exercise for them. They reached the final last year, but would’ve gotten a lot more out of this year’s competition given the standard.

“The men’s bracket went up another notch again this year, and so did we. It’s a great tournament and we’ve had our best outing here. Paul [head sevens coach Paul John] and the boys were outstanding. It’s the first time we’ve won on day one here, and this year we won twice on the first day. We did enough to reach the quarters, but unfortunately we didn’t qualify on the count back,” Rees said.

One poor half in that final pool game hurt Hong Kong’s chances said Rees, “We played seven minutes of poor rugby against Tabadamu and they are now in the final. We turned the ball over too much, got outmuscled in the contact area and conceded 26 first half points, but none in the second half, and we scored a try.

“In the bowl semi final, we played one of the favourites in the fire services. Again, could’ve, should’ve, you know; we lost 14-7, but another minute on the clock and we would have drawn it and would have probably won in overtime, so it’s really fine margins for us here now.

“We need to continue coming to these type of tournaments. The top eight here are all World Series standard with a number of Fiji players. The play is high continuity and beyond physical, but what Paul has done with a young squad here in five games has been fantastic.

“The learning is to keep intensity and keep our concentration for, as Paul said to the squad, every minute, of every half, of every game, we can’t take the foot off of the pedal.”

For Rees, the performance of a squad with many regulars at home bodes well for a vital season ahead: “We’re as strong now as we’ve ever been in strength in depth and player eligibility, and are building nicely towards the Hong Kong Sevens and on to Olympic qualifying in November.”

The performance also saw the return of two squad mainstays in Alex and Tom McQueen, both of whom have returned after completing pilot training in Australia.  It was Tom’s first sevens action in over two years as he was injured prior to departing for his training.  

It was also the first time that coach Paul John has had the opportunity to see them in action in a competitive environment.

“They did well, said Rees, “they partnered well and got some real game time. They lived well with the intensity. Paul has never seen them, never coached them, and this gave him a chance to do that and for them to stake their claims as well. They are experienced players and we’ve missed them, Rees said.

Sevens squad members Fong Kit-fung and Mak Kwai-chung both scored tries over the weekend, triggering a donation of 20,000HKD to Operation Breakthrough as part of a charity campaign launched at last year’s Hong Kong Sevens.