Injury takes shine off strong start
Hong Kong's tour to New Zealand got off to a resounding start when they defeated a full-strength United States outfit in the first of two practice games in Wellington yesterday.
But Hong Kong sevens coach Rodney McIntosh was less than pleased with the growing number of casualties with hooker Rowan Varty rolling his ankle and looking in doubt for the Marist Sevens, which gets under way tomorrow.
'It doesn't look good for Rowan,' McIntosh said. 'But I'm happy we had two good hits outs against the United States. We won the first one against their top team 15-3 and lost the second game 10-5 after the line-ups were changed.'
The US are in Wellington for the third leg of the IRB Sevens series which begins this weekend and had arranged games against Hong Kong, who are on a five-day visit which is being used as a build-up to the Hong Kong Sevens.
Varty's injury is the latest blow for the 15-strong squad whose numbers were reduced before they left on Tuesday night with influential playmaker Mark Wright laid low by an acute bout of tonsillitis.
'We had hoped Mark could join the squad later, but he is really bad. He is in hospital at the moment,' said Ivan Torpey, Hong Kong Rugby Football Union's head of performance. Earlier flanker Kris Marin had pulled out with a knee injury. 'We didn't bring in anyone for Mark [Wright] as it was too late to consider someone else,' Torpey said.
