HONG KONG—The IRB Women’s Sevens World Series Qualifier played in Hong Kong on Sept 12 and 13 at Shek Kip Mei featured teams from Japan, China, South Africa, Kenya, Brazil, Fiji, Mexico, Hong Kong, France, Netherlands, Portugal and Argentina.
The 12-teams were split into 3-Pools with 4-teams in each. Pool-A comprised France, China, South Africa and Mexico; Pool-B included Fiji, Japan, Argentina and Kenya and Pool-C included Brazil, Netherlands, Portugal and Hong Kong.
Hong Kong narrowly lost all three of their pool matches pushing them into the Bowl competition, but China with another strong showing reached the Semi-final of the Cup competition. Although China lost to Fiji in the Semi-final they won their 3-4 play-off match against Republic of South Africa 12-7. Japan won the Plate beating Brazil 33-7.
The Final contested between France and Fiji was full of surprises. Fiji scored first, but missed the conversion. France hit back with a converted try to make the score 7-5 to France at the end of the first half. France piled on two more tries in the early part of the second half taking them into a 19-5 lead with just 41/2 minutes left on the clock. Fiji doubled their effort and scored 2-tries to equal the match score at 19-19 and then engineered a dramatic winner to the far right of the field after the hooter had been blown for full time. Asinate Savu made a fine run down the right touchline to eventually score under the posts to make it 12-19 and then Luisa Tisolo equalled the score at 19-19 with a blistering break down the centre of the field and ran in the final winning try to make the final score 24-19.
Fiji, France, China and South Africa gain core team status to play in the 6-leg series starting in Dubai on Dec 4 to 6, 2014.
Men’s and Women’s Sevens Teams for Asian Games
The men and women selected for the Asian Games Rugby Sevens events at Incheon, South Korea at the end of Sept announced earlier this week are as follows:
The Hong Kong Men’s Sevens squad for Asian Games: Kwok Ka Chun; Jack Capon; Max Woodward; Keith Robertson; Michael Coverdale; Cado Lee, Ka To; Jamie Hood (captain); Tsang Hing Hung; Rowan Varty; Alexander McQueen; Thomas McQueen; Salom Yiu; Kam Shing; Mark Wright.
The Hong Kong Women’s Sevens squad for Asian Games: Nam Ka Man; Royce Chan, Leong Sze (captain); Sham Wai Sum; Christy Cheng, Ka Chi; Melody LIi, Nim Yan; Ivy KwongG, Sau Yan; LaiI Pou Fan; Rose Fong; Candy Cheng, Tsz Ting; Yuen Lok Yee; Lindsay Varty; Aggie Poon, Pak Yan.
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