HONG KONG CHINA SUCCESS AT ASIA RUGBY U20 SEVENS

Thanks to a phenomenal effort from the Hong Kong China U20 Men’s and Women’s 7s at the Asia Rugby U20 Sevens in India at the weekend, the two teams brought home gold and silver medals respectively.

After two days of intense competition in hot conditions in Bihar, played out in front of a large and energetic home crowd, in Sunday night’s finals the boys claimed a convincing 33-0 win against Sri Lanka to take the title, while the girls showed amazing grit but came up just short against China in a narrow 29-21 defeat. 

Head Coach of the Hong Kong China 7s programme, Paul John, reflected on the coaching efforts around the trip to India:

"All the staff involved have been excellent in preparing the two teams with limited time through the summer. Tomos Howells, who runs the development 7s at the HKSI, brought the squad together and created a real team spirit across both groups.

"Tomos also coached the boys, and it was particularly pleasing to see them grow through the tournament and avenge a first match defeat to Sri Lanka with a very strong performance against them to win the final.

"On the girls' side, Robbie Fergusson, who coaches our senior women through the season, led the group expertly. He was supported by Luke Treharne for this campaign, and they worked really well together to get the very best out of a young group of players, who pushed a strong China side all the way in the final."

U20 Men’s Head Coach, Tomos Howells, reflected on the team's gold medal, as well as the tour as a whole:

“I thought the overall tournament experience was excellent and India did a really good job as hosts with the stadium, facilities and drawing large crowds – you can see the sport is really growing there.

“Both the boys and girls really embraced the culture and overall experience, with very few having ever been to India before. They all spent the whole trip as one big group, with no issues taking on what was a tough travel schedule.

“Nine boys are based in the academy at HKSI, while all 12 girls selected are part of the same setup. This shows the depth we have been able to build, and in fact due to our young boys squad, eight of them can go on and play next month in the U18s in Mongolia.

“We are fortunate to also bring in three boys from overseas, Oliver Clarke who was captain for last summer’s World Rugby U20 Trophy, Sam Nicholle who starred in the U19 Asia Rugby Championship in December, and William Stubbings who is a former Bath Academy player and recently completed a season in Australia, he featured in a Hong Kong China jersey for the first time.”

“Winning the tournament was a huge achievement, and I was delighted with how the boys grew over the two days, and worked together when it mattered most to get the result. As coaches we felt they played a great brand of rugby, and a style that we want to play as a Hong Kong China team.”

“In terms of standout players for the boys, Matthew Rickard was really calm on the ball and ran our game well, he has great skills and is able to kick off both feet so I think he will feature strongly in the senior programme going forwards. Oliver Clarke is obviously a great rugby player, who works hard for the team and leads by example. Finally I’ll mention Ryan Schroeder as one of the younger boys who is really quick, and probably made the most tackles in the team.”

“Lastly I want to acknowledge Paul John who travelled as our Team Manager, Hugh Everson who is relatively new to HKCR as General Manager of Medical, but bringing in over 20 years of experience in rugby in South Africa and Henry Chong who worked tirelessly on player conditioning. All three offered leadership, guidance and support to the coaching team, as well as creating a really professional environment for the players.”

Reflecting on the women’s silver medal, Women's U20s Head Coach Robbie Fergusson said: 

“The overall experience for the girls was really positive. Their tournament opportunities are limited at times, so these Asia Rugby U20 competitions are a great test to go and play against different opposition, challenge ourselves, develop skills and – above all – make memories as a group, something that we set out to do at the start of the campaign.

“We had a really difficult pool with the UAE first, so I was really pleased with the win there. Next up was Kazakhstan, who are a lot bigger and a lot older than us – and the girls fronted up to that challenge brilliantly. Finally, India are a bit of an old rival, having played us at U18s last year, and it was a great win against them as hosts and in the tough heat.

“This all put us in a great place ahead of day two, and we got through our Semi-final comfortably. In the Final we faced a really tough China team, who train in a full-time environment. Although we started off a little bit slow, I love the fightback the girls showed.”

“In terms of standout players, I was really impressed with Elsie Hulme. She captained fantastically and led the squad brilliantly well. And of course, Sophie Aranha was the top tournament try-scorer for the girls with nine tries, and showed some exceptional pace on the edges.”

“Our goal is to keep building depth in our women’s programme, and I’m sure some of these girls will get opportunities to step up to senior level, whether at Asian Sevens Series, the new-look SVNS Series Divisions, National Games, Asian Games or Olympic Qualification campaigns.”

Photo Album: hkrugby.com/album/details/asia-rugby-u20-sevens-2025 

Results

Men’s Day 1:

Hong Kong China U20 19 – 24 Sri Lanka (Pool Match)

Hong Kong China U20 27 – 0 UAE (Pool Match)

India 5 – 24 Hong Kong China (Pool Match)

Men’s Day 2:

Hong Kong China 33 – 5 Malaysia (Cup Semi-final)

Sri Lanka 0 – 33 Hong Kong China (Cup Final)

Women’s Day 1:

Hong Kong China 26 – 12 UAE (Pool Match)

Hong Kong China 29 – 10 Kazakhstan (Pool Match)

India 7 – 31 Hong Kong China (Pool Match)

Women’s Day 2:

Uzbekistan 5 – 24 Hong Kong China (Cup Semi-final)

China 29 – 21 Hong Kong China (Cup Final)