Hong Kong’s men’s and women’s sevens teams breezed through their opening matches at the Borneo 7s today in Sabah, Malaysia; the women beat Philippines club side Eagles Select, 40-0, before the men beat local outfit Sabah Sukma, 47-0.

Hong Kong outclassed the Eagles, spending huge swathes of the match attacking their opponents’ 22-metre line and forcing them into conceding numerous penalties and turnovers – several of which lead to tries, with Hong Kong scoring four times in the first half en route to a 26-0 lead at the break.

Stephanie Chan Chor-ki and Nam Ka-man collected two tries each with Chan opening the scoring in the first minute.

The Eagles pinned Hong Kong deep on their opening salvo, but the defence held as the forwards forced an early turnover on their own line. The ball ended up in the hands of vice captain Natasha Olson-Throne who bulldozed her way over 10-metres and several defenders to create space for Chan who finished with a 70-metre sprint for the try.

Chan converted her own score and went on to strike five of six conversion attempts, accounting for half of Hong Kong’s points after adding two tries.

Chan’s re-start put the Eagles under pressure deep once again and directly lead to Ivy Kwong Sau-yan crossing over a minute later after another turnover forced by excellent counter-rucking by the forwards. 

Chan’s missed conversion brought Hong Kong’s lead to 12-nil but the margin increased to 19 shortly thereafter as the Eagles again struggled to field Chan’s searching re-start kick.

Some heady defence by Chong Ka-yan transformed Chan’s pressure into points and lead to the third straight try from an Eagles turnover.  Chong recovered the ball and dished a perfect pass to Olson-Thorne in-stride 15 metres from the line. Typically unstoppable from in close, Olson-Thorne proved too much for the defence, barging over for her first try with Chan slotting the conversion.

Hong Kong’s last try of the half came from Nam Ka-man, whose solo effort split the defence and put her comfortably beneath the posts as Hong Kong extended the lead to 26-0 after Chan’s strike.

Coach Kevin West made liberal use of the subs bench to start the second half and the team took a few minutes to gel before getting back into the scoring stakes yet again.

Chong was once again heavily involved. She helped Hong Kong find its way out of some early trouble with some fancy footwork in a tight space as she side-stepped the defence to deliver a long outlet pass to Chan, who had a clear run down the sidelines but a lot of ground to cover before eventually crossing for her second try. The conversion by Chan brought the score to 33-0.

Colleen Tjosvold added the icing on the cake after finding a seam in the defence on a late Hong Kong attack. Tjosvold broke the gain line before dishing a perfectly weighted ball to put Nam Ka-man clear for her second try. Chan’s conversion was good as Hong Kong won 40-0.

The men brushed off regional development side Sabah Sukma, 47-0, as they warmed up for day two.  Hong Kong lead 21-0 at halftime with forwards Kane Boucaut and Toby Fenn (2) contributing tries in the opening stanza.

Boucaut and Fenn were simply too strong for the defence with both carrying several defenders across the line on their tries. Fenn was made to work harder on his second tally, as he finished his natural brace with a spinning and whirling run over 50-metres, fending off numerous arm tackles, to cap a hot start.

Coach Paul John made liberal use of the bench as he swapped out four players after the re-start, with Russ Webb, Seb Brien, Chris Maize and Cado Lee Ka-to all coming on, followed shortly thereafter by Max Denmark.  Despite the changes, Hong Kong retained its form and kept the pressure on to score four more tries in the second half to win 47-0.

Pivot Jamie Hood set up the opening try of the half after spotting a gap in the defence from a tap and go penalty. He wasted no time in feeding a waiting Salom Yiu Kam-shing out wide with the Hong Kong flyer quickly touching down for a 28-0 lead.

Chris Maize followed Yiu’s try with another punishing forward effort in the corner as he got on the board shortly after coming onto the park. Webb’s conversion was successful pushing the lead to 35-0.   

Seb Brien added to Sabah’s woes after weaving his way through five attempted tackles en route to a 50-metre try to bring Hong Kong’s total to 42-0. Jack Neville produced a classy finish for Hong Kong with a devastating side-step that wrong-footed nearly the entire defence as he strolled over as the hooter sounded on Hong Kong’s 47-0 win.