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Nazvi Careem

HONGKONG made a sensational start to their World Cup build-up when they won the Darwin Sevens in Australia's Northern Territory yesterday.

 Finally discarding their reputation of being poor travellers, the territory's experimental side showed great character to defeat last year's Australian club sevens champions Randwick 21-10 in the final.

 Hongkong faired poorly in last November's Dubai Sevens, but their performance in Darwin will provide national coach George Simpkin with a strong foundation for the Hongkong Sevens in March and the World Cup Sevens from April 16-18 in Scotland.

 Hongkong return to Australia in two months for the Canberra Sevens.

 Team manager Peter Burbidge-King said the tournament unveiled some new sevens talent in Hongkong, including Tim Leach, the Kowloon scrum-half who revelled in his hooker role.

 He said Hongkong Football Club's fly-half Philippe Lacamp and German Mathias Entenmann also proved their worth.

 ''The team improved tremendously as the tournament went on. There are some good new players, but the experienced ones helped us in the final,'' said Burbidge-King.

 Veteran sevens players Ian Strange, Stuart Krohn and Craig Pain formed the core of Hongkong's squad.

 Strange, Krohn and Entenmann scored in the final. Entenmann, suffering from a minor hamstring injury, was replaced by Dave Bulbeck.

 Burbidge-King said all of Hongkong's 10-man squad played in the two-day event.

 The squad was completed by Keith Gauntlet, Mark Thomas and Satoshi Ishimoto.

 The 32 teams were divided into eight groups of four, from which the top two teams entered the main Croc Cup competition.

 The territory scored 20 tries in beating South Darwin, Northern Territory Police and social side Christians in their group matches.

 They then beat local side Catherine Pirates 28-0 in the opening round of the knock-out competition to complete a successful first day of competition.

 Hongkong continued their good form yesterday with a 17-5 victory over the Seahawks, a First Division provincial side.

 They entered the final after a 19-7 win over the Regulators, a combination of former Darwin and Northern Territory players.



HK taste Darwin Sevens success