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Our Women’s and Men’s Development Sevens development squads competed across three tough days of highly competitive rugby in the Invitational Open Divisions at the Emirates Dubai 7s, with the women only losing the Cup Final to finish runner-up, and the men placed 6th after losing the Plate Final.
HKCR Women’s 7s
Robbie Fergusson was the Women’s Head Coach for this tournament, with Andy Vilk acting as a Coach/Manager.
The team was captained by Pun Wai Yan and she said before the tournament, “We are excited to play the Emirates Dubai 7s this weekend, especially as we will be playing teams we don’t know and that come from outside of Asia.
Based on last year’s experience, we know that it will be very competitive, but we have a mixed group of young and experienced players in the squad. We are bringing a lot of potential and positive energy to end the year on a high.”
The women were excellent across the pool stages, which included six matches, and our women won all of their pool games before reaching the Cup Final against Monaco Umusa, who they beat narrowly 17-10 in pool play but fell just short in the Final 17-31.
Across the pool games, the team scored 148 points and conceded only 48 points.
In the Cup Final, Shanna Forrest, Grace Hood and Gabriella Rivers were all try scorers, but despite the opposition having a player sin-binned, they proved too strong in a highly competitive game which saw the scoreboard ticking over. The team created some great opportunities but conceded too many points from the restarts, which proved to be the difference.
Before the tournament, the squad spoke of wanting to play teams from different countries and develop their learnings, and the hit-outs against sides from Monaco, Australia, France, Mauritius, Finland and the UK were an excellent opportunity to do that.
Results - International Open Women
Pool Stages
Hong Kong China 17-14 Wonders 7s
Hong Kong China 33-12 Eastwood
Hong Kong China 15-12 Mauritian Barbarians
Hong Kong China 39-0 Akuma Savvy Panthers
Hong Kong China 17-10 Monaco Umusa
Hong Kong China 27-0 Arctic Susu 7s
Cup Final - HKCR 17-31 Monaco Umusa
HKCR Women’s Squad - Emirates Dubai 7s 2025
- FORREST Shanna - Kowloon
- LANGFORD Sophie - Overseas
- TSE Joyce - Valley
- Pun Wai Yan (Captain) - Gai Wu
- HULME Elsie - HKFC
- HOOD Grace - HKFC
- EDEN Jessica - Valley
- RIVERS Gabriella - Kowloon
- FISHER Emily - Kowloon
- POON Hoi Yan - USRC Tigers
- BOURK Jamie Claire - HKFC
- FREEMAN Teah - Overseas
- Etta Kwong - Valley
HKCR Men’s 7s
The Men’s Sevens side selected for Dubai had a good blend of young talent and experienced heads, with Tomos Howells acting as Head Coach and Peter Jericevich as Coach and S&C.
Howells said before the weekend, “This is a young, exciting group of players, aiming to play a fast brand of rugby in ideal conditions here in Dubai.
The core of the group trains full-time together, apart from Oliver Clarke and Sam Nicolle joining us from the recent U20s squad that won in Bihar 2025. Although it’s a young group, we have some experienced players such as Jack Combes & Shiven Dukhande in the mix to help out young co-captains Billy Rigby & Josh Eustace over the weekend.”
Players in the group included those who have experience from the LIT Super Sevens Series, the Dubai tournament last year and some Asia Rugby Sevens Series pedigree; Juan Esono Mba Oyana, Alexander Moses, Jack Combes, Shiven Dukhande and Camill Cheung.
The Men’s co-captains were Joshua Eustace and Billy Rigby.
Rigby said before departing for Dubai, “Our preparation leading into the Dubai 7s was really great. We worked really hard on our physical conditioning all through the pre-season, and we have worked hard on the field to prepare. Part of our preparation was helping the senior 7s squad prepare for the National Games, which was beneficial for us leading into our own preparations.”
“The tournament in Dubai will be a great challenge and a great opportunity for us to face some quality opposition from all over the world.”
The men won three of four pool games (against Kazakhstan, Wonder 7's, and Cavaliers RFC) but lost to Speranza 22.
The team only didn't reach the Cup Semifinals based on points differential, with the best second-placed team advancing to join the three pool winners. That meant they played the Plate Semifinals, where they beat Butchers 7s in a close game to advance to the finals and face fellow Asian side Kazakhstan (who recently won the Asia Rugby 7s Trophy 2025), and should be in the top tier in Asia next year.
Our men had beaten them in pool play 28-12, but the final was very tight with the opposition rushing out to a 14-0 lead by the break. We came back well to narrow the lead to 12-14, and the final minutes were close with the guys looking to try and complete the comeback, but they just ran out of time.
Results - International Open Men
Pool Stages
Hong Kong China 47-14 Wonders 7s
Hong Kong China 28-12 Kazakhstan
Hong Kong China 14-28 Speranza 22
Hong Kong China 33-12 Cavaliers RFC
Plate Semifinal - Hong Kong China 19-10 Butchers 7s
Plate Final - Hong Kong China 12-14 Kazakhstan
HKCR Men’s Squad - Emirates Dubai 7s 2025
- MBA OYANA Juan Esono - USRC Tigers
- CLARKE Oliver - Brothers Club AUS
- RIGBY William (Co-Captain) - Kowloon
- NG Yuk Shing - Kowloon
- MOSES Alexander - HKFC
- COMBES Jack - USRC Tigers
- CHEUNG Camill - USRC Tigers
- EDEN Justin - USRC Tigers
- DUKHANDE Shiven - USRC Tigers
- ELLIOT Blake - USRC Tigers
- EUSTACE Joshua (Co-Captain) - USRC Tigers
- NICOLLE Sam - USRC Tigers
It’s Always Sunny in Dubai
On the main pitch, our warmest congratulations to Sunny Lee, who after an excellent tournament was rewarded with the opportunity to referee the SVNS women’s final between New Zealand and Australia. The Australian women, who have dominated the Dubai tournament in recent years, ended up conceding to New Zealand in a 29-14 showdown.
Congratulations to our players, support staff, and Sunny for an excellent outing in the desert.
This article was posted in collaboration with our good friends at RugbyAsia247 – check them out for all the latest Asia Rugby news!
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