‘They’re going to try and bully us’: Kazakhstan look to muscle their way to Olympic berth over Hong Kong women’s sevens squad
- The Central Asian women’s sevens team are known for their size, punishing opponents with brute strength and intimidation
- Hong Kong will look to bring down the bigger squad on their way to a berth at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in Guangzhou
Natasha Shangwa Olsen-Thorne knows exactly what Kazakhstan are going to try to do to her and her teammates this weekend.
“They’re going to try and bully us,” said the 27-year-old veteran who got her first cap in 2011 during the Hong Kong Sevens. “Kazakhstan have always been a very physical and direct team, so they will try and bully us in the contact area and they will try and take us into contact a lot.”
The winners of the eight team tournament, which also includes China, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines, will book the second Asian slot along with hosts Japan for the rugby sevens portion of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which kick off July.
Kazakhstan finished ahead of Hong Kong in the three-tournament Asia Rugby Sevens Series, which wrapped in Sri Lanka in September. The last time the two squads met was in Huizhou, China in mid-September during the second leg where Kazakhstan narrowly edged Hong Kong 19-17 to take third place. Olsen-Thorne, who scored a try in that game, said they need a few things to fall in line to turn the score if they end up playing Kazakhstan in the knockout stage given Hong Kong are in a group with Sri Lanka, China and Korea.
“We just have to stay smart and stick to our structure. So as long as we know when we want to carry the ball, when we want to be direct, when we want to spin it into space, and we remain confident we will be fine.”