Hugo Stiles must step up for depleted Valley
Club commitments on hold as national sevens duty comes calling
Hong Kong under-20 captain Hugo Stiles must attempt to spark a depleted Societe General Valley when they travel to The Rock on Saturday in their hunt for the Broony Quaich.
Valley will be missing all their sevens stars as well as explosive new winger David Vainqueur, and head coach Jack Isaac is pinning his hopes on Stiles and the rest to stop the unbeaten run of Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish.
"There isn't that much of him, but Hugo is a sharp little player and very courageous. He has added a bit of spark to our backline," said Isaac, who has been forced to change his line-up to accommodate injury as well as the missing sevens players.
We will be missing a host of players, but the rest of the guys are working well
Forward Nick Hewson and backs Lee Jones, Salom Yiu Kam-shing and Max Woodward will be on duty for Hong Kong in the final leg of the Asian Sevens Series in Beijing this weekend.
Their absence will leave a big hole, and it has been made worse in the backs with Vainqueur out with a sore thumb. In the forwards, Valley will be missing number eight Ben Davey as well as flankers Alex Baddeley and Thomas Lamboley. "We will be missing a host of players, but the rest of the guys are working well with the general level across the squad being pretty good as people are stepping up," said Isaac.
Valley will field Ryan Meacheam and Matt Rosslee in midfield with Stiles likely to man the last line of defence as they plot a way to get past a Hong Kong Scottish defence who have not conceded a try in the past two games.
"We haven't seen a lot of the sevens guys anyway this season, so we will have to continue on our own merry way," Ryan said.