The countdown clock is ticking for Hong Kong after the International Rugby Board announced the dates for the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 in Moscow - June 28-30.
'We have just over a year to go and our first goal will be to qualify for the World Cup at the Asian qualifiers in Singapore in November,' said Dai Rees, Hong Kong Rugby Football Union's national coach and head of performance.
Hong Kong hold the proud record of having played in every World Cup Sevens tournament since the inaugural event in 1993, and Asia's number two-ranked sevens team are determined to be around when rugby's first major international event in Russia is staged. Rees has already mapped out the road to Moscow, beginning with the HSBC Asian Sevens Series in September.
'It will be a crucial series this year. There will be three ranking tournaments this time, one more than last year, and our aim is to finish in the top two,' Rees said. 'It is very important we do this as then we will be seeded not to meet our nemesis, Japan, until the finals in the Asian qualifiers.'
Asia will have three direct entries for the 24-team World Cup. Both Cup finalists in Singapore plus the winners of the third-place play-off will book tickets to Moscow. It is expected that 16 teams will be in the fray at the Asian qualifiers - to be held in the first weekend of November. It is made up of four pools of four with the top two from each pool qualifying for the knockout stages.
Qualifying will be no cakewalk. Apart from Japan, a number of other teams will be pushing for a place, including a resurgent South Korea, China - who have placed a great deal of focus on sevens since its re-inclusion as an Olympic sport in 2016 - and even Sri Lanka, who came within a whisker of defeating Hong Kong at the Asian Games. New arrivals the Philippines will be another threat.