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.