The Hong Kong men’s sevens squad romped to victory in the second leg of the UK Super Sevens Series, thrashing Apache Sevens 63-14 in the final at London Irish. They struggled early in the opener against Stunts, trailing 10-0 at half-time. But as was the case throughout the day, crucial second-half substitutions would help right the ship. Harry Sayers, Kane Boucaut and Alessandro Nardoni all came on against Stunts to give pivot Russ Webb some room to operate as Hong Kong produced 29 unanswered points in a massive comeback win. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hong Kong Rugby Sevens (@hksevens) Sayers looked the class of the tournament and was again disruptive for Hong Kong at the restart, where his leaping efforts helped his side maintain the lion’s share of the ball. Liam Doherty, Bryn Phillips and Boucaut all scored second-half tries, with Sayers adding one of his own in the win. An even slower start against Wooden Spoon would prove impossible to overcome as Hong Kong found themselves 24-0 behind early in the second half. Tries from Nardoni, Webb and Sayers cut the arrears but time ran out on them. Stung, Hong Kong then turned the heat on in a gritty 29-10 encounter with Emerging Spain to reach the semis where they blitzed the British Army 19-7 and reached their second final in as many tournaments. In the final against Apache, Sayers once again came into his own, accounting for a brace in the opening three minutes to help Hong Kong out to a 14-0 lead. The squad never looked back as they kept Apache in their own 22m for the entire first stanza. Hong Kong added seven more scores in the 63-14 rout. The women’s side were beaten 17-12 by eventual champions Hammerhead Sevens in golden point extra-time in the cup semi-finals. They put in a composed 36-19 win over Lionesses before beating Hammerhead 29-7 in their second pool outing. They later added an impressive 29-0 shutout of the British Army in a game dominated by some of the newer players in the squad with Shanna Forrest and Rosie Wright shining. But things derailed in the cup semis when Hong Kong fell to Hammerhead in their second meeting of the day, despite jumping out to an early 12-0 lead. The teams will now head to Portugal for a warm-up tournament in the Algarve. “We need more competitive experiences, but this puts us in a great place for some really competitive training and playing in the Algarve and we are hungry to improve on our UK performances and experiences,” coach Iain Monaghan said. “The girls were disappointed with their discipline not to close the game in the first half as we raced ahead, and then missed two scores though poor accuracy, which would have put us out of touch, but that is sevens.”
