Hong Kong’s men’s squad can build on the team’s championship loss at a warm-up event in Borneo heading into the rugby calendar’s biggest dance. Raef Morrison said there were a lot of positives the team can take from last weekend’s final test before the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens gets underway on April 5. The squad battled through early injuries to two key players and sweltering heat that regularly hit 36 degrees Celsius at the Borneo Sevens. The Hong Kong Dragons lost 19-14 to the Borneo Eagles in the final, and Morrison said the final score could have gone either way. “We definitely could have beaten them,” said Morrison, who recently came back from university in Scotland to rejoin the national programme. “Of course, that’s easy to say when you’re not knackered and out there sweating and everyone is yelling at you. But, yeah, I think we could have won that game, and it does give us something to build on.” The squad returned from Borneo on Monday and headed straight back into training. The squads for both the men and women are expected later this week, or early next week at the latest. The team is scheduled to play practice matches against Fiji and Wales. Hong Kong have drawn Tonga, Zimbabwe and the Philippines for the World Rugby Sevens Series Qualifier. Their first match is against the Philippines. Despite the loss in the Borneo final, coach Paul John said he was pleased with his team’s overall play and feels they are on track heading back to Hong Kong. He now has the difficult task of selecting 12 players to represent the city. They will already be without youngster Alessandro Nardoni, who performed well during the Asian Games (scoring in the gold medal win) and Asia Rugby Sevens Series. He suffered a leg injury during the Premiership grand final while playing for HK Scottish. However, the Borneo tournament did signal the return of Jack Neville, who is returning from a bicep injury and also saw 22-year-old Mak Kwai-chung score six tries. Hong Kong Sevens: with 17 days to go, here are five things you need to know “Disappointed, of course,” said John of final result. “We want to win tournaments. But effort wise we couldn’t have done any more and I’m really pleased with them all.” The Dragons lost two key players – Max Denmark and Kane Boucaut – who sat out after injuries early on Saturday during the first game of the tournament, and there is no word on their status for the Hong Kong Sevens. This allowed Hong Kong to do rolling substitutions and Morrison said the remaining 10 players got more than ample time on the pitch to make their case for a spot on the team. View this post on Instagram @borneoeagles Sevens - a key preparation tournament for @hksevens. Less than two weeks before #hk7s #wheretheworldcomestoplay A post shared by Hong Kong Rugby (@hkrugby) on Mar 24, 2019 at 2:40am PDT <!--//--><![CDATA[// ><!-- //--><!]]> “We really got physically tested, there were a lot of big teams, like there was in Fiji last month,” he said. “It was a good warm-up for us to get ready. There were a lot of really good players from all over the world.” According to the New Strait Times , the Eagles featured a mix of Fijian and New Zealand players. “We’ve been training in Hong Kong all winter, so we could really feel the heat right from the get-go. Even in the captain’s run we started to feel it, and training too beforehand,” Morrison said. The women’s team ended up fourth after losing 43-7 to eventual winners the Nagato Blue Angels, a Japanese side which featured players from New Zealand, Australia and the Cook Islands. The women then went on to lose the bronze medal match against the Japan Pearls 39-0. Regardless of the outcome, new head coach Iain Monaghan said there were some good takeaways from playing such star-studded sides. “We came up against two very good Japanese clubs with a lot of internationals, and the intensity in those games was a good lesson for us.”