‘We can win Hong Kong Sevens’: women’s sevens captain Melody Li makes bold prediction
- Slotted in a group with Kenya, Papua New Guinea and Uganda, the Hong Kong women have drawn what some call an easy pool
- Captain Melody Li said this year’s team is the ‘best in the tournament’
“We can win the Hong Kong Sevens,” she said.
“In terms of skill sets, Hong Kong is the best team in the tournament. Some of the teams in our bracket are bigger and more physical than us, but as long as we execute in offence, give pressure on defence, then we have a good chance to win.”
Coming off a scrimmage with Scotland on Tuesday, head coach Iain Monaghan, who took over in January, whittled his squad down to 12 players, five of whom will be making their World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series Qualifier debut.
Li said she was happy with her team’s performance against Scotland, and they were now fully focused on their first game against Papua New Guinea on Thursday.
“It was a friendly game (against Scotland) so it wasn’t super high intensity, but both teams were still trying hard to execute. I thought we played really well. There are still a few small errors we need to fix, but I think we can fix those over the next few days so that we can perform during the Sevens.”
Li has been captain for just over a month, and admits there is a bit of pressure with this new role leading up to the city’s biggest sporting event of the year.
The squad is without former captain Natasha Olson-Thorne, who suffered a collarbone injury in premiership action. Regardless, Li said she is ready to lead a youthful squad into the biggest tournament of the year.
“I just do my best to lead by example. I work really hard and try to help my teammates do the same, and most importantly, give confidence to the team and show my trust in them and allow everything to develop from there.”
Both the women’s and men’s Hong Kong squads got some good news on Monday as World Rugby announced the path to Japan for the 2020 Summer Olympics. The women will take part in a qualifying tournament in November in Guangzhou, China.
Hong Kong will also be among six cities to host combined men’s and women’s tournaments on the World Rugby Sevens Series starting next year and the women’s side will expand to eight teams, from six.
Li said she is happy to take a leadership role for the women and also potentially help grow the sport at home.
“The Hong Kong team has a special culture in that it’s actually a mixture of local and foreign girls contributing to the team. We have had local girls like Agnes (Tse Wing-kiu) and Stephanie Chan helping out the team for years and also girls from other nationalities that have been strong physical players for us. It’s always been a mix between the two.
“But it’s always good to have more local girls coming in. Hopefully, I can be a role model to younger girls, and show them that it is possible to become successful in this sport if they work hard.”
The men’s squad also finalised their roster for the tournament, comprising captain Max Woodward, Sebastian Brien, Michael Coverdale, Jamie Hood, Lee Jones, Cado Lee Ka-to, Alex McQueen, Tom McQueen, Raef Morrison, Jack Neville, Russell Webb and Salom Yiu Kam-shing.
There are some notable exemptions due to injuries – Kane Boucaut and Max Denmark, who went down last weekend at the Borneo Sevens, as well as veteran Ben Rimene and Toby Fenn.
