A Hong Kong VII, showing some rust in their first competitive tournament in four months, dropped all of their pool matches at the Coral Coast Sevens today in Fiji. The results see Hong Kong advance to the Bowl quarter final tomorrow against Uprising, third placed finisher in Pool B, at 06.40 am (Hong Kong time). A loss will send Hong Kong to the Shield semi final.

“It’s been fantastic to get back into sevens mode, particularly here in Fiji, which is the perfect place for us to do that. All of the teams are of an international standard and have been in sevens training for months, so this is an ideal competition for us,” said Hong Kong coach Jevon Groves.

“I’m not surprised at the overall standard, but I was a bit surprised at how many of the teams are at that standard. I thought there might be a few weaker teams in the field, but the standard is really high across the board, which is great,” Grove added.

The loss of Ben Rimene, one of the side’s standout players last season, to a minor injury in the captain’s run on Thursday exacerbated the rust factor as the fly half was rested this weekend. Rimene’s absence left Jamie Hood, (who arrived late this week after flying in from Japan where he played this season for Top League side Ricoh Black Rams), to play significant minutes in his first high-level sevens competition since June.

Hong Kong dropped its opening match, 12-40, against the Coastline Roos before narrowing the margin in its second game against Naviti Ratu Filise, losing 5-19. Hong Kong put its best performance on the park in in its final pool match against last year’s Cup runners-up Wardens, but another poor start left them with a mountain to climb as they trailed 0-26 at halftime, before losing 5-45.

Despite the margins, Groves was pleased with today’s results: “We came here to test the boys and put them under pressure, physically and mentally, and that objective has certainly been achieved. We haven’t played in a few months and it showed, but I was pleased that we improved as the day went on, especially in those areas we identified game by game, like the kick-offs,” Groves said.

“There are things we want to improve for tomorrow. We spilled too much ball in contact and our one-on-one defensive effort was lacking at times, but overall I’m pleased to see where we are at,” he added.

Charles Higson-Smith made his sevens debut for Hong Kong today, scoring his first try late in the match against Wardens, with a hard-charging run to touch down in the corner that showed a glimpse of the potential that the powerful winger can bring in the ball-carrying stakes. That try was balanced with a few individual errors that also showed he still has a way to travel in making his transition to sevens.

“Charlie’s ball carrying was strong but I think the basics of his catch and pass can still be worked on a bit. I was pleased he was as good as he was considering this was his first sevens experience. He will only get better. We weren’t expecting him to be amazing on debut but just wanted to see how he would handle himself in this environment,” Groves added.

With Coverdale named in the starting 12 ahead of the tournament as a replacement for Rimene, James Cunningham has been named as the 13^th player in case of injury. He could be called up overnight after captain Max Woodward, Alex McQueen and Coverdale all picked up slight knocks.

“We don’t have anything in the way of significant injuries but there are a lot of bumps and bruises and it’s still early in the campaign so we won’t be pushing things. Physically we are fine but I’m more interested in how the players react mentally.

“How will we come out tomorrow? That is where the real test will come. I think I know this squad pretty well by now. The guys are pretty disappointed, mostly with their individual play, but I know we will be back up tomorrow and looking to put some pressure on.

“One of our goals this week is to fine tune our attack. We want to put pressure on, not just in defence, but also through our attack. They are big guys here but defensively they are not that strong and we want to pose more of a test tomorrow,” said Groves.