It was a case of job well done for Hong Kong yesterday as they kicked off their HSBC Asian Sevens Series campaign with two impressive wins to set up a quarter-final against Thailand.
Dai Rees' men scored 13 tries and conceded only one as they outclassed Mongolia 59-0 and then put paid to a potentially tricky Malaysia side 28-7 with a superb first-half performance.
Keith Robertson, new captain Rowan Varty and Ant Haynes were standouts in front of a sparse crowd on an overcast day at Shanghai's Yuanshen Stadium, but a new-look Hong Kong side were impressive all round to give Rees plenty of reason for optimism today.
'It was a very efficient day,' said the coach. 'Not particularly strong opposition first up, but Malaysia as we know with their Fijian influence are a strong side. I was really pleased seeing things we've worked on come off - we've increased our offload, high-risk game to get out of the contact area and it worked well.'
Mongolia had spent three days travelling by bus and train from Ulan Bator to Shanghai and if they weren't tired enough after that, they would have been after fruitlessly chasing Robertson's shadow.
He scored a hat-trick of tries and four conversions to record 23 of the 33 points Hong Kong recorded in the first seven minutes of their campaign, Varty and Yui Kam-shing also going over. Yui and Tsang Hiong-hung added to the tally in the second half, while new boy Pete McKee opened his account and Mark Goosen marked his return to the side after a two-year absence with another.
Malaysia were expected to provide much sterner opposition, but Hong Kong tore into them from the off, Robertson adding to his try tally before a double from Haynes and one from Tom McQueen established a 28-0 half-time lead. Though Malaysia were much improved in the second half, Hong Kong restricted them to just one touchdown.