China favourities for Asian Games

The first women’s sevens at the Asian Games, four years ago, is memorable for the dramatic climax when hot favourites China – who had not conceded a single point before the final – were beaten to the Gold Medal by Kazakhstan in a match where the lead changed hands five times. It was such a blow to the Chinese team that it is probably only in the last year or so that they have begun to reassert their previous confidence and climb back to the top of Asian sevens rugby.

As a result this year’s tournament is almost perfectly timed for China. Fresh from not only a decisive win in the opening round of the Asian Championship, they also won a place as a core team in the Women’s Sevens World Series last month. In their best (and most consistent) form for years, China begin as significant favourites.

Their main competitors should be Hong Kong, Japan and Kazakhstan. Despite the expansion of the game, these four teams are a significant distance ahead of everyone else. China have drawn Japan in their pool, and both teams should have few problems disposing of Singapore, Uzbekistan and Korea.

Similarly in Pool B it is hard to see beyond Hong Kong and Kazakhstan reaching the semi-finals, ahead of Thailand, Malaysia and Laos. The newly professional Hong Kong team could be China’s biggest opponents, given their recent performances, and will start as favourites to win the pool – though Kazakhstan should put in a better performance than they did in last month’s Asian championship first leg when they took part less than a week after playing in the XVs World Cup in Paris.

Of the rest, Singapore and Thailand are capable of the odd surprise result, but for the rest this will be all about gaining experience.

An 11thteam, India, were also due to take part, but withdrew after failing to obtain official funding – a great pity given the amount of work taking place to develop rugby (both men’s and women’s) in the country. In addition Sri Lanka, who have put in some good performances in recent years, are also notable by the absence. While it is unlikely that India or Sri Lanka would have been competing for medals, they are unlikely to advance in the game if they do not compete at all.

Pool fixtures(All local time – Incheon is eight hours ahead of BST)

Pool A:

Tuesday 30thSeptember:11:00 Japan v Uzbekistan11:22 Singapore v Korea14:40 China v Uzbekistan15:02 Japan v Korea18:20 China v Korea18:42 Japan v Singapore

Wednesday 1stOctober11:00 China v Singapore11:22 Korea v Uzbekistan14:40 China v Japan15:02 Singapore v Uzbekistan

Pool B:

Tuesday 30thSeptember:11:44 Japan v Uzbekistan12:06 Singapore v Korea15:24 China v Uzbekistan15:46 Japan v Korea19:04 China v Korea19:26 Japan v Singapore

Wednesday 1stOctober11:44 China v Singapore12:06 Korea v Uzbekistan15:24 China v Japan15:46 Singapore v Uzbekistan