Hong Kong have received a passage from India. A sudden withdrawal by the Indian Rugby Football Union from next month's Asian Championships in Japan has given the SAR room to take along two extra players.
Hong Kong coach Phil Campbell greeted the news happily, saying two extra bodies could expand his choices and give him a bit more leeway with team selection.
'Two more players will mean a lot. I'm very happy to hear that as it will give me more options,' Campbell said yesterday.
India, a fledgling member of the Asian Rugby Football Union, decided last weekend that they did not have the money to go to Aomori, in northern Japan. It has resulted in the Group B championship being changed to a round-robin format.
The five teams - Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, China and Sri Lanka - will now play four games, which in effect is an extra game from the original schedule. As a boost, the Japanese Rugby Football Union have decided to allow these teams to increase their squads by two, a player and an official. This change has also been awarded to Group A teams Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. That group will also be round robin.
'We can now increase our tour party by two. I believe it has to be a player and an official,' said Allan Payne, executive director of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union. But effectively it will mean two players as far as Hong Kong is concerned because assistant coach Rick Shuttleworth will be used in a dual role - playing open side flanker for the SAR.
