The Hong Kong Sevens squad will be given an extra week off to savour their Shield triumph last Sunday as well as for their bruised and battered bodies to recover as head coach Dai Rees looks ahead to the HSBC Asian Five Nations World Cup (15-a-side) qualifiers later this month. It will be back to work as usual for the Hong Kong national squad - barring the sevens players - who will meet tomorrow night at King's Park as they prepare for a crunch home tie against South Korea on April 24. 'This will be the defining game of our World Cup qualifying campaign,' Rees said. 'We have to beat the Koreans to keep our qualification hopes alive. It will be a huge game, but we're better prepared than ever.' Rees is hoping that the highs of winning a trophy at the Hong Kong Sevens with mainly a home-grown team will inspire their Asian Five Nations campaign where the team will come up against Korea, the Arabian Gulf, Kazakhstan and Japan. The games against the Gulf and Japan will be away from home 'Wouldn't it be wonderful, first winning the Shield at the Hong Kong Sevens and then if we were to qualify for the World Cup?' asked Rees. While the Mark Wright-led sevens squad faced high-end competition last weekend - they defeated Wales, South Korea, Italy and Russia, while losing to England and Japan - the rest of the national squad have not been twiddling their thumbs on the sidelines. As the Chairman's X, they participated in the Hong Kong Football Club Tens and reached the Bowl final where they lost 15-12 to the Hong Kong Barbarians - a last-gasp try by Johnny Gbenda-Charles robbing them of victory. However, Brian Higgins, the Hong Kong assistant coach, who was in charge of the Chairman's X, was pleased with the performance of the squad and said the four first-time hopefuls for Hong Kong - Rory Hussey, James Stokes, Matt Price and Law King-yin - had done their chances of winning a first cap a great deal of good. 'It is unfortunate to lose right at the end, but the Tens was a useful and great build-up to the Asian Five Nations. All the new guys, as well as a number of others, have put their hands up for selection,' Higgins said. Rees will name a squad of 30 to 32 players after Easter and will narrow it down to the required 22 after a trial match against the Hong Kong League XV - comprising players who are not eligible to play for Hong Kong - on April 17. Despite a strenuous past few days of rugby, Rees was confident that all of the squad have come through unscathed. 'There are no injury worries other than a question with Wright's shoulder. He will rest for a couple of weeks and we will then assess his condition. His ankle, which also was a problem, is okay,' Rees said.
