Sizzling sevens squads unbeaten on first day in Darwin

The Hong Kong men’s and women’s sevens squads threw down the gauntlet on opening day of the Darwin Sevens, winning all of their pool matches to advance comfortably to Sunday’s knockout stages.

The men won their three pool games against Northern Territory Mosquitoes (33-0), Outback Chiefs (46-5) and Zoo Sport (24-12).

Tom McQueen was a destructive force, especially in the first two matches, and he finished the first day with three tries, as did Rowan Varty, Raef Morrison and Salom Yiu Kam-shing. Captain Jamie Hood, Nick Hewson, Kwok Ka-chun, Ben Rimene and Lee Jones all scored one try each.

“We won our first match fairly comfortably 33-0 and I must admit that I was pleased with that one,” said coach Gareth Baber. “It was the first time that I had seen the players play in anger and they played well.

“Our second game was in a similar vein, moving along in a good direction and playing well, but importantly some of the things that we have been working on over the past couple of weeks could be seen coming out in the game, which was positive.

“Our final game against Zoo was a tougher match, but in fairness, we came through it pretty well. Credit to them, they raised their game against us, which is good because it is a mark of respect for us and the way that we are playing.”

As winners of their pool, the Hong Kong men will play Sunday’s last Cup quarter-final at 12:50pm (Hong Kong time) against Tribe 7s, who finished runners-up in Pool A.

“To have won all three games is a great start and hopefully we can continue that run,” Baber added. “It gets tougher, though, as we will play Tribe 7s who are an Australian development team. We watched them play and they have some real quality.”