Hong Kong juniors vie for Asian Five Nations places
IRB tournament featuring second-tier countries will give city’s rising stars a chance to compete in A5N
Hong Kong's next generation of players will get an early chance to impress selectors at the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy (JWRT), to be staged for the first time in Asia – at the Hong Kong Football Club from Monday.
"We will be keeping an eye on them and if any of the boys catch the eye, no doubt we will be pulling them in [for the Asian Five Nations]," said Dai Rees, the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union's head of technical development and performance.
The Asian Five Nations Top Five competition gets under way at the end of the month and will double up as the Asian qualifiers for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
We will be keeping an eye [open] and if any of the boys catch the eye, no doubt we will be pulling them in
"The message we want to send out to the juniors is 'perform and you can play your way into the senior team' and I believe there are a number of players capable of doing that," Rees said.
Hong Kong's under-20 squad will play for the first time in the JWRT, which will feature eight of the best second-tier nations bidding for one berth at the 2015 IRB Junior World Cup.
"We finished second to Japan at last year's Asian Championship in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Only the winners of each region take part and Japan represents Asia, but as hosts we were assured of a berth," Rees said.
The eight-team competition, which starts on Monday (April 7) and ends on April 19, comprises two groups of four. Hong Kong, the eighth seeds, are drawn with top seeds United States, Tonga (4th) and Georgia (5th). The other pool comprises second seeds Canada, Japan (3rd), Uruguay (6th) and Namibia (7th). The winners of each pool will meet in the final.