Hong Kong will have to travel a rocky road in their bid to book a place in the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Dubai as they are unlikely to be given top-dog status for the Asian qualifiers at the Hong Kong Football Club on October 4-5.
The International Rugby Board is set to rank Japan as the number one side on the basis of their gold medal-winning effort at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. This will mean that Hong Kong, either the second or third seeds, are likely to face South Korea in a crucial semi-final with only the winner of that match assured of a ticket to Dubai.
'The coveted place is to be seeded number one, but that is unlikely to happen,' admitted Allan Payne, Hong Kong Rugby Football Union's executive director. 'We will most likely be seeded two or three, which would mean meeting South Korea before the final.'
Only two teams - the finalists - from the 12-team men's tournament will qualify for next March's Rugby World Cup Sevens. Hong Kong have participated in all four previous World Cups. They were invited to take part in the inaugural tournament in 1993 at Murrayfield, Scotland, then won automatic berths due to hosting the 1997 and 2005 tournaments and qualified for the 2001 event in Argentina.
Hong Kong had hoped by virtue of winning the Sri Lanka Sevens last year, they would be seeded first, thus avoiding both Japan and Korea until the final at October's qualifiers.
'What we will do is rank the first four teams and go from there. Among other tournaments, we will also be looking at the Asian Games standings, for since 2006 all the teams have not participated in one tournament,' said Jarrad Gallagher, IRB's development manager for Asia.