Hong Kong's rugby officials and selectors have been thrown a dummy pass and caught off guard after picking the national squad for the forthcoming Singer-Sri Lankan Airlines Sevens on the basis that it was a qualifying tournament for the Asian Games in Doha next year.
A squad comprising players, who are either of Asian and Chinese parentage or locally-born, was formed two months ago on the understanding that the September 9 to 11 tournament in Kandy, Sri Lanka, would be an Asian Games qualifying event.
But Jamie Scott, the SAR-based secretary general of the Asian Rugby Football Union, told the South China Morning Post yesterday that the Sri Lankan tournament would not be a qualifier for Doha, as it was an International Rugby Board (IRB) Asian satellite event.
'It was on the table in the beginning as a qualifying event for the Asian Games, but it is not now as it is an IRB event and as such has different eligibility rules. The qualifying process for the Asian Games is a matter for the Doha organisers,' revealed Scott yesterday.
This revelation has caught the union completely on the wrong foot. Usually they pick the senior squad on the more lenient IRB eligibility requirement of three years residency. But thinking that is was an Asian Games qualifier, selection had been based on different criteria.
'This is just crazy. We were under the impression that it was going to be an Asian Games qualifier and as such it was logical to pick players who were eligible to play in the Asian Games. Now we hear that it has nothing to do with the Asian Games,' said selector Ian Brownlee.
Rowan Varty, Ricky Cheuk and Alex Gibbs are the only players who played in this year's World Cup Sevens who qualify under the Asian Games rules in the present squad.