Confident Hong Kong juniors begin defence of Asian sevens crown

Asian champions Hong Kong are in confident mood as they begin the defence of their regional men’s under-20 sevens crown this weekend in Malaysia, where the Hong Kong women’s under-20 side will make their international debut.

Six members of last year’s unbeaten men’s squad are back this term – including Richard Lewis, Calvin Hunter, Hugo Chui Ho-ching, Eric Kwok Pak-nga, Tomos Howells and Danial Davidson – while senior sevens squad player Mike Coverdale has been drafted in for the opening Johor Bahru leg of the two-part Asia Rugby U20 Sevens Series 2015.

The maturity and experience in the squad has filled the players with self-belief, according to Coverdale.

“Our expectation is to win,” he said before flying to Malaysia with the squad. “We won last year and swept both titles and our aim now is to be the first team to win the series back to back.”

Lewis, who has been named squad captain, was equally upbeat. “Our preparations have been going really well and the boys have trained hard,” he said. “Our fitness is at a peak and we are ready for this tournament.”

As top seeds Hong Kong have been drawn into pool A in the eight-team Johor tournament alongside Thailand, Taiwan and Sri Lanka. Pool B features second seeds Malaysia together with Singapore, UAE and Kazakhstan.

Coach Fan Shun-kei, himself a former sevens star, is expecting a good showing from his charges.