Head Sevens coach Paul John is after steady improvement from the men’s sevens squad selected for this weekend’s Coral Coast Sevens.

John has seen his troops improve year-on-year at this competitive tournament in Fiji, the spiritual home of sevens, and is calling for a third year of progress in Sigatoka.  The desired improvement has been quantified in a target of reaching the cup quarterfinal stage, a marker that none of the international teams have managed to achieve since Hong Kong has been participating.

“We will again be playing some very good teams. The majority of the Fijian teams are full of internationals and it’s tough to reach a quarterfinal there, as a lot of international teams have found out; no one’s done it really,” said John.

“Last year we won one game, but lost every other game very, very closely. If we are competitive as we were last year, hopefully we can get a few more wins. It would be good to get through to the last eight but no one has done it previously because the Fijian teams are so strong.

“We train with Fiji on the Tuesday prior to the tournament and this is valuable tournament experience for us, which is the prime objective. It would be good to reach that last eight, but it's a big ask,” he said.

Hong Kong mustered a Shield semi final performance in 2018 with four of its five losses coming by seven points or less.  This year’s competition will again be stiff with champions Police returning alongside Ratu Filise and Outrigger, both of whom beat Hong Kong last year, and development squads from the USA and Australia.  Hong Kong is ranked second in Pool B behind local side Tabadamu.

A balanced squad with a blend of experience and emerging talent has been given the opportunity to press their claims for spots in the team for April’s Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens. 

Defending home turf at the Sevens is a primary goal for the season ahead, but the focus will once again be on qualification for the Rugby Sevens competition at the 2020 Olympics.  Hong Kong advanced to the final repechage stage in Monaco in the qualification for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“It is a pretty balanced squad, but there are a few interesting selections. We could have taken the usual suspects, if you like, but we wanted to give other guys an opportunity and try to make the group stronger and make it more competitive for places. The squad is almost 99% passport holders or potential passport holders, which is another criteria for us going into an Olympic [qualification] year.”

The squad features the return of the McQueen brothers, Alex and Tom, whom have recently completed their pilot training with Cathay Pacific. 

John welcomed the returning siblings who have been influential for Hong Kong saying, “They’ve found the time to come and train quite a bit with us and have been training hard. They’ve managed to get the week off for the travel, so we’re just going to give them an opportunity to settle back into it and hopefully they can make as much of an impact as they have in the past.”

Also included are key forwards Chris Maize, marking his return from a lengthy injury, and Lee Jones, both mainstays who will add experience to the group.  Cado Lee Ka-to and Eric Kwok Pak-nga round out the senior leadership group. 

The emergence of Alessandro Nardoni and the return of Raef Morrison from university add further strength to Hong Kong’s forwards, but spaces in the backline have created opportunity for the inclusion of some of the wider squad, notably Russell Webb. 

Webb made his Hong Kong Sevens debut in 2018, but was sidelined for much of the last season with injury. 

“Russ has unfortunately missed out due to injury, but he has played well for Football Club this season. He played out there [Fiji] last year but hasn’t managed to string a lot of tournaments together because of his injury so we are looking forward to see how he goes,” John noted.

A host of Hong Kong’s recently graduated age grade talent is also included in Mak Kwa-chung, Fong Kit-Fung and Mark Coebergh.  Tomos Howells was called up as a late replacement for the injured Liam Herbert and will mark his first tour with the senior sevens squad in Fiji.