Hong Kong will get two chances to qualify for the 1999 Rugby World Cup (RWC) to be held in Wales.
In a drastic change to the previous qualifying format - where the winners of the biennial Asian Rugby Football Tournament represented Asia at the World Cup - RWC organisers yesterday revealed that a repechage would be included in the 1999 World Cup qualifiers.
This will offer the territory a second chance at qualifying if they fail to win a quadrangular tournament to be played by October, 1998, most probably in Singapore.
The territory will play Japan, South Korea, and the winner of two previous qualifying rounds of the lesser Asian nations - Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore - in the quadrangular tournament.
The winners of the quadrangular qualify for Wales. The runner-up goes into the repechage which will also include three teams from Europe and one each from Asia, America, Africa and the Pacific.
A draw will pair six of these seven teams for home and away matches. The winners of these three matches join the seventh team, given a bye, in a quadrangular tournament to be played by May, 1999, at a venue to be decided. The first two from this repechage tournament qualify for Wales.