The Asia Rugby Sevens Olympic qualifying tournament takes place November 7-8, 2015 at the famous Hong Kong Stadium where 12 Asian countries fight it out for that one crucial qualifying spot reserved for the Asian region.
Of the 12 men’s team permitted to compete at Rio, seven spots have already been taken up with Fiji, South Africa, New Zealand, Great Britain, USA, Argentina and the hosts Brazil already taking these positions. The next four spots will be taken up from winners of the four regional qualifiers winners in Asia (this weekend) Oceania and Africa in mid-November and a European tournament. The fifth and final spot will be taken up by the winner of a 16 team repechage tournament, to be held later in the year.
With the success of the Japanese rugby team in the Rugby World Cup fresh in the minds of the ‘rugby crazed’ Asian nations, the achievement of the Cherry Blossoms has taken rugby in Asia into new heights. The wide spread media coverage it gained, and the return of rugby to the Olympic fold, has all 12 teams preparing for the next level and leaving no stone unturned.
This weekend will be a feast of rugby over the two day tournament, with both the men’s and women’s teams competing. The Men’s competition is broken into two pools:
- Pool A has Japan, the Asian Games rugby medalist (which had stalwart and national captain Michael Leitch in their team when they won that Gold medal) It also includes Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and China
- Pool B is led by home side Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Philippines and Iran.
Should the Hong Kong team finish top of their pool, they will most likely avoid playing Japan; their greatest rival on the Asian Rugby Sevens circuit, until the men’s Final. In the recently concluded Asia Rugby Sevens Series, Japan and South Korea finished first and third and they offer the hosts Hong Kong their greatest challenge in Pool B.
The Women’s qualifiers will be played over two legs, with the second series taking place in Japan at the end of November. It is an eight team event with China, Hong Kong, Japan, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Sri lanka, Thailand and Uzbekistan competing for that single spot in Rio.
”We want to make sure that everybody knows that, we have two days of extremely competitive Rugby Sevens coming up,and the Hong Kong teams, which both have a good chance of coming out of this with the right result, need all our support, ” said the Hong Kong Rugby Union’s Vern Reid.
Andy Yuen, a former star representative for the Hong Kong men’s sevens team was pleased with the draw. “Our pool looks to be the easier one, and so the first day will be a good chance to build up our momentum. If we win the pool play, then we get the best deal in the semi-final draw and hopefully make it through to the big match at the end [Cup final] likely against Japan, South Korea or China.”
The coach of the Hong Kong Women’s sevens team, former New Zealand Black Fern Anna Richards says the team has a ‘tough’ qualifying tournament ahead. “We had great success up in Qindao, where we won in the the first leg of the Asia Rugby Women’s Sevens Series, ” Richards says
“We’ve got a tough qualifier though. It’s very close between Japan, China and Kazakhstan and anything can happen on the day. It’s not an ideal situation, but it is what it is.”
The Hong Kong men’s team come fresh from reaching the Central Coast Sevens Plate Final, while the Japanese team look firm favourites in this qualifier and will boost their squads to get into that final spot. The Cherry Blossoms are expected to field some players who recently returned from the Rugby World Cup to help out their seasoned campaigners in Lote Tuqiri, Lomano Lemeki and Katsuyuki Sakai.
Hong Kong’s Player of the Year Max Woodward is again leading his side during the Asia Rugby Sevens Olympic qualifying tournament in their quest for Rio 2016.
“Max has the personality and character to lead this team. He has shown strong consistency in his appearances at both sevens and 15’s and has huge respect within the group” Hong Kong coach Gareth Baber told the World Rugby website.
For the host men’s team to do well, they are relying on their senior experienced players in Rowan Varty, brothers Alex and Tom McQueen, Mark Wright, Jamie Hood and Tsang Hing-Hung to support Woodward and perform well to ensure this proud sevens nation can hold their head high at the Summer Olympic Games in Rio.
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WORLD RUGBY SEVENS SERIES begins with Round One in Dubai on 4th/5th December, 2016.
Follow all the Sevens Rugby action with our in-depth coverage on Last Word On Sports with Jovilisi Waqa.
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