China regain Asian title

Colleen Tjosvold, Hong Kong v Sri Lanka

​After a win in the first leg of the Asian Championship in Hong Kong in August, as well as the Asian Games gold last month, China were clear favourites to win the second leg and Asian Sevens title in front of their own supporters in the Chaoyang Stadium in Beijing.

However, as other teams have found, playing in front of your own crowd can be a mixed blessing, creating an extra pressure to succeed that can be difficult to cope with. Indeed China’s record in China (especially in major finals) is noticeably worse than when playing overseas.

Nonetheless Saturday began well for the Chinese with thumping 48-0 and 36-0 over wins Philippines and Thailand, with Xiao Ming Yu – top scorer in the first round – again on form, racking up 27 points for her country in these opening two games. A semi-final place was assured, but to top the group they would have to beat old rivals and current champions Japan.

Overall this has been a mixed season for Japan. After a poor start with a disappointing third place in the Asian first leg and poor performance in the WSWS qualifier they picked up a silver medal in the Asian Games, and were within seconds of getting a gold. On Saturday, despite Yu scoring adding another try to her personal record, Japan finally came good with a brace of tries from Mifuyu Koide giving them the game and pool win 12-7.

The other pool was a similar story with Kazakhstan and Hong Kong being predictably too strong for Sri Lanka and Singapore, Rose Fong and Aggie Poon again in great form for Hong Kong while Liliya Bazyaruk and Veronika Stepanyuga stood out for the Kazakhstanis. There has been little choose between these two teams this season, Hong Kong coming out ahead in the first leg while Kazakhstan came back to take the bronze medal in Korea. Their pool decider was a tight game, but it was Kazakhstan who won it 19-12.

This gave the Kazakhstanis a semi-final against China, with again China starting as clear favourites as they have looked significantly the better side all season. However, knowing that a win would all-but guarantee them the title the Chinese came close to defeat, slipping through with a final-play try by only 17-14. The other semi-final was a more one-sided affair, with Japan decisively gaining revenge for their defeat in the first leg by this time beating Hong Kong 17-0.

With first-leg runners-up Hong Kong failing to reach the final, China knew they would be Asian champions regardless of the result, but would have been expecting to win as they had beaten Japan in every meeting this season, other than Saturday’s pool game. However Japan had other ideas and spoilt the home side’s party, coming back from behind with a Mifuyu Koide try from the final play of the game giving them the tournament with a 24-19 win.

Hong Kong took third with a 14-12 win over Kazakhstan, and were also third overall in the championship with Japan finishing just ahead of them in second place on points difference.

Pool W

Pool X

Plate

Cup

As in the first tournament, Xiao Ming Yu was the tournament's top scorer. Over the two tournaments she scored 100 points in 10 games, including 10 tries and 25 conversions. Japan's Mifuyu scored 59 points over the two tournaments, while Thailand's Nueangruthai Jaemit finished as the series' third highest scorer and leading try scorer with 11 tries and 57 points.