Hong Kong have to engineer own luck to keep Asian title hopes alive

A hurting Hong Kong will need to create their own luck if they are to keep their title hopes alive at the HSBC Asian Sevens Series, said head coach Dai Rees on the eve of the India Sevens in Mumbai.

"The guys are hurt, and even angry, after losing narrowly to Japan [in the last two Cup finals] and they are eager to make amends. But at the end of the day, you need a bit of luck as well, and we know we need to create our own luck," said Rees.

Hong Kong need to win in Mumbai and then again in Singapore next month to be able to have a chance of retaining their Asian Sevens title.

"The players have been looking at themselves over the past fortnight asking what went wrong and owning up to individual mistakes," Rees said. "They have also come up with strategies to eliminate these errors in the finals. They have been self-critical but in a positive way."

But there are potential banana skins before crossing swords with Japan again, starting with China and Malaysia in the preliminary pool competition.

China have drafted in six PLA players who missed the opening two legs because of last month's National Games where sevens made its debut. Malaysia will be dangerous, especially if they field their domiciled Fijian players.