Hong Kong women’s coach John tells players ‘just go for it’ at HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series
- Hong Kong will take on Colombia, Poland and Paraguay in Pool D in Stellenbosch
- The winners of the tournament will earn the right to play on the world series circuit
Hong Kong women’s coach Paul John has told his players “to just go for it” when they run out in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series in South Africa on Thursday.
The Welshman has named an experienced 13-strong squad for the first stage of the tournament in Stellenbosch, with 10 of the group having represented the city at the Hong Kong Sevens earlier this month.
Appearing in the competition for the first time, John’s side have been drawn in Pool D, and will take on Colombia at 5.22pm (Hong Kong Time) and Poland at 8.46pm.
They then face Paraguay in their final pool fixture on Friday at 3.22pm. A second round of matches will take place between April 28 and 30.
“Our preparation has been good this week,” John said. “The girls are a bit nervous and excited at the same time, but it is great to have both of our men’s and women’s programmes competing in the Challenger Series for the first time.”
After putting in some solid performances at the Sevens, Hong Kong will now battle for the right to play on the world series, and John said his players needed to show the same spirit they did several weeks ago.
“We showed glimpses of how we can play in Hong Kong - winning our kick-offs, getting our defence right, and sticking tackles when we needed them,” he said. “We made more tackles in Hong Kong than we have done previously and it needs to be the same now. We just need to go for it.”
Natasha Olson-Thorne and Melody Li Nim-yan will co-captain the opening tournament, with senior players Nam Ka-man, Jess Ho Wai-on, Chloe Chan, Maggie Au Yeung Sin-yi, and Stephanie Chan Chor-ki all retained. Also returning from the Hong Kong tournament are Agnes Tse Wing-kiu, Rosie Wright and Micayla Baltazar.
Baltazar is joined by her sister Chloe, and by another pair of siblings in Gabriella and Georgia Rivers. It is the first time that two pairs of siblings have featured in a Hong Kong women’s squad and John is looking forward to what they will add.
“The Rivers sisters have been playing at university in Australia and it is fantastic to see them maintain that interest in representing Hong Kong. They bring good physicality to the set-up, while Micayla and Chloe have been training with the squad for a while now. Just like the rest of the team they have an opportunity now to express themselves and show what they can do at this level,” John said.
John plans to rotate a number of players in the coming weeks with an eye on competing well both in South Africa and at the ultimate goal, the Asian Games in September.
“In recent years the girls have not had the same opportunities to compete internationally as the men, so tournaments like this and Hong Kong earlier this month are really essential for our build-up to the Asian Games,” he said.
“The more opportunities we get at this level the better prepared we will be to handle the pressure moments and situations that are part of the Asian Games. This is what we train for, so having this experience and game time is priceless. We can only learn from this.”
