Hong Kong in poll position for Asia 7s

Hong Kong celebrate their win in the first leg - can they do it again? (Photo: SCMP)

The Asian Sevens is one of the world’s oldest regional women’s sevens tournaments. Since it began in 2000 it has seen periods of ascendancy for Kazakhstan, China and, most recently, Japan. But after their first leg triumph in Qingdao, it is Hong Kong start who start favourites to lift the title and perhaps start a new era in the continent’s women’s sevens.

The tournament is only the second of four international sevens this autumn – the teams will meet again twice in November to decide Asia’s Olympic representative – and there may be an element of shuffling squads ahead of the Rio qualifiers (Japan in particular finished a disappointing third in Qingdao) – but Hong Kong’s rise and China’s decline continues trends that have been apparent for the past year, including the World Series qualifier in Dublin where Hong Kong also finished ahead of their Chinese rivals - though it will be interesting to see what effect the arrival of Ben Gollings as head of their sevens programme is having.

The tournament will also break new ground as the first international sevens ever held in Sri Lanka. With nearly 50,000 registered players (including over 2,500 women and girls), in Asia Sri Lanka is second only to Japan when it comes to participation, though they have not yet managed to turn that potential into results. With the decider for the men’s Asian sevens being played alongside the women’s tournament, plus free entry to the ground, there should be some large and enthusiastic crowds for the tournament.

Match schedule and results