Hong Kong 7s returns

The oldest international women's 7s tournament in the world returns this Friday with the Hong Kong 7s taking place.

Published by Alison Donnelly, March 25th, 2014

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Hong Kong 7s returns

The women's tournamwent will be held at the Hong Kong Football Club with the Cup Final being played on Friday evening at the Hong Kong Stadium, where the men's world series competition is also being held this weekend.

Pool A sees Canada, Hong Kong and Kazakhstan battle it out, Pool B pits Brazil,. Papua New Guinea, and South Africa together while in Pool C, France, Kenya and China face off with the last pool involving Ireland, Singapore and Japan.

Five sides (Canada, Brazil, Ireland, China and France) are using the tournament as a warm-up for the fourth leg of the Women's World Series, which takes place the following weekend in China, while this is an important tournament for other teams, most especially the hosts as it's the debut home competition for recently appointed head coach - the former New Zealand star Anna Richards.

"It's one of the highlights of the calendar in Hong Kong and one of the main focuses for our group this year along with the Asian Games," she said."Anytime you play in front of your home crowd there is a lot of pressure. So there is a lot of pressure on the girls and myself. People expect us to perform and perform well so I think there is a huge amount of pressure on us to show where we are and how long we have come along in the past three months."Richards has opted for an experienced selection under the captaincy of Royce Chan Leong Sze, who also marks her ninth Hong Kong Women's Sevens appearance. In total, eleven of the 12-woman squad have played previously in the Women's Sevens, with Cindy Yuen Lok Yee the only debutant.

Despite the veteran nature of the group, Richards said the selection was challenging, ""The selection was very difficult, which is a good thing because the girls have really improved over the last three months and a lot of them have put their hands up. It was a difficult decision and it was good that it was difficult because it means we're playing well.

Kenya also travel to Hong Kong with real hopes of a semi-final place. Head coach Kevin Wambua expressed optimism last week, saying the country "will do well" at their first tournament since Dubai.

"The team heads into the Hong Kong Women's Rugby Sevens as a dark horse as nobody knows about us," he added. "We have studied our opponents in the pool and will look to exploit their weaknesses".

Kenya will be hosting the African Sevens championship on April 12 in Machakos.

"The girls have been in training for close to eight weeks. The technical bench sat down and reviewed our performances from 2013. We looked at where we are as a team, evaluated our strengths and weakness and drew up a training plan," said Wambua.

"We have been working on our conditioning and improving our skill level. The preparations are going well, the girls have responded positively to the new training regime."

"The CAR Women's Africa Cup Sevens is a very good opportunity for the Lionesses to show what they are capable of doing. It is also an opportunity for the Kenyan public to see the team in action and this will be beneficial in terms of growth and attracting sponsorship. "

"As far as the competitive side of the tournament goes, the Lionesses are going for nothing short of victory. We have grown as individuals and as a team. I know it is a tough task for the girls but they are very capable of achieving overall victory on home soil."

South Africa also return to international competition at Hing Kong, with preparations for Hong Kong being enhanced by SARU involving senior training staff, such as ex-Springboks Pieter de Villiers, Chean Roux and Louis Koen in recent training sessions.

Sevens coach Renfred Dazel was delighted with their support, saying that "their attention to detail and emphasis on using the correct techniques will certainly benefit the players in what is a very important season for us.

"One of our main objectives in the next two seasons is to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, so it is vital that we perform well in all our competitions this season to build our confidence for the qualifying rounds next season."

As well as following Kenya to the African sevens, South Africa will also travel to the final round of the WSWS at Amsterdam in May.

Other teams capable of scoring real upsets would include Papua New Guinea, who have beaten several major Asian teams, including China, in the past and are second only to Fiji in the Pacific. Interest in sevens is growing rapidly, with the first national sevens tournament planned to follow the return of their players from Hong Kong, and plans to show the Hong Kong women's tournament on national TV.

France will also be playing in their first major sevens of the year, with a squad that have been training throughout the Six Nations. France have been improving rapidly at sevens and are targeting a place among the core teams in next year's WSWS.

Overall Canada will undoubtedly be the favourites for the tournament as they currently sit third in the World Series rankings but Spain will also be a major threat after positive showings on the same circuit this season.

The nature of the pool make-up means that only pool winners reach the semi-finals of the Cup competition on Friday

Fixtures:08:30      Pool A Canada   v   Hong Kong08:50      Pool B Brazil   v   Papua New Guinea09:10      Pool C France   v   Kenya09:30      Pool D Ireland   v   Singapore09:50      Pool A Kazahkstan   v   Hong Kong10:10      Pool B South Africa   v   Papua New Guinea10:30      Pool C China   v   Kenya10:50      Pool D Japan   v   Singapore11:10      Pool A Canada   v   Kazahkstan11:30      Pool B Brazil   v   South Africa11:50      Pool C France   v   China12:10      Pool D Ireland   v   Japan

In the afternoon pool winners move on to the semi-finals, runners-up to the plate, and third-placed teams to the bowl. All games will be at the Hong Kong Football Stadium, except for the final which will be played at the main rugby stadium at 7.52pm Hong Kong time (GMT +8).

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