The new local season kicked off last night with a new sponsor, a new team and heavy anticipation for Hong Kong's sevens and 15s sides. As the Securicor Union Sevens got under way before an appreciative crowd at King's Park Sports Ground last night, the SAR's national sides for both the 15-a-side and the abbreviated versions were hard at work fighting for places at the Asian Rugby Football 15s Tournament (ARFT), which Hong Kong hosts in late October and for next year's sevens World Cup. Hong Kong coach Ivan Torpey said the identification process for the AFT tournament had gone well and that a preliminary squad of 32 players will be whittled down to 25 in early October. Meanwhile, a provisional pool of 36 sevens players will be reduced to 21 at the end of November 'We have a sevens training camp in November and then we have another training camp in December. We also might go to Chinese Taipei, Korea and Japan. We then have another training camp in January, when we could go to Australia for a tournament there and another training camp in New Zealand too following that,' said Torpey. 'On the sevens side, the programme has been scheduled in and it's a very exciting programme. Once we have done our training camps, we will need some meaningful competitions for the guys to be able to go out there and compete against other teams. 'It's going to be awfully productive for both the coaches and the players. However, at the moment our focus is on the 15s and that programme is coming along very well. 'We've got a preliminary squad of 32 players to be whittled down to 25 on [Monday] October 10. Before we chose the squad, we'll play two games, one against a combined DeA/Valley team, and then the following week we play the Hong Kong Football Club.' Torpey said last night's club sevens tournament had given him the opportunity to see the players and assess their current form. 'Obviously we requested all the preliminary players to be involved in this tournament so we can assess form,' he said. Asahi Valley defeated defending champions DeA Tigers 31-5 in the final to win the Cup competition at last night's sevens tournament. The Plate was won by CBRE Club who defeated Synovate HKCC/Aberdeen 29-7, while new boys Cross Try CWB won the Bowl by defeating Securicor Kowloon 26-10 in the final.
