THE Hong Kong men’s team will be using the McDonald’s Fiji Coral Coast 7s as part of its preparation for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series qualifiers and the Asia Olympic qualifying tournament.
The qualifying tournament for the 2019-2020 edition of the HSBC 7s Series will be held alongside the Hong Kong 7s in April while the Olympic qualification will be held in November.
Hong Kong coach Paul John said they had a busy 11-month schedule ahead of them.
John said the Coral Coast 7s would be tough.
“We are looking forward to the tournament as we enjoyed it last year,” he said.
“The girls got to the final and did very well.
“It was a tough tournament for the boys and it is going to be again as there are so many good teams in the tournament. The Fijian teams are very strong with the Australian Development and United States.”
John said they were focusing on the bigger picture by targeting the HSBC 7s Series and the Olympics.
“We want to perform better than last year,” he said.
“There are about four or five players from last year in this team. A lot of them are still playing 15s rugby. It is a big season for us with the Olympic qualifying in November where we will be playing against Sri Lanka, Korea, China and obviously Japan has already qualified.
“So we have an opportunity for some more players to show what they can do and there is a little bit of experience as well.
“We are in the qualifying competition to get to HSBC 7s series that will have countries like Germany, Ireland and all those sides.
“We managed to get to the quarter-finals in the last two years but it is getting more difficult. The aim is to play consistently at the highest level.”
