Hong Kong better placed to cope with new residency rules than Japan
Local officials say programme puts city in ideal position to withstand possible tightening of three-year requirement on foreign players
Hong Kong would be better-placed than Asian rivals Japan and most other countries to cope with any tightening of the three-year residency rule, said senior official Dai Rees.
World Rugby, the governing body of the game, said the three-year residency rule, which had seen an increasing number of foreign-born players selected for national teams, could be reviewed soon.
Rees said the blow would be felt harder in Japan, and even England, than in Hong Kong.
Last week, Japan fielded six such players against us and all of them were key players. I think we are ahead of the game
"We have increased our quota of local players in recent years. Of the 23-strong squad that started against South Korea a few weeks ago [in the Asia Rugby Championship] 14 were Hong Kong-born players. We are in a reasonably good shape," said Rees, the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union's general manager of performance rugby.
"But Japan might struggle. Last November their starting line-up against Samoa had nine players who qualified under the three-year residency rule. Last week, Japan fielded six such players against us and all of them were key players. I think we are ahead of the game.
"Our sevens programme is run on a different platform where having a Hong Kong passport is a must and this is rubbing off on our 15s programme, too. Our biggest problem is that we lose a lot of Hong Kong-born kids in the performance years [18 to 22] who go overseas to study," Rees said.
Any changes to the eligibility rules would need to be voted on by the World Rugby Council.