Olympics boost as Hong Kong’s women prove they can beat Asia’s best after China Sevens win

The Hong Kong women’s sevens side established themselves among the best in the region after winning their first-ever Asia Rugby Women’s Sevens Series tournament title at the China Sevens in Qingdao on Sunday.

Coached by Anna Richards, Hong Kong swept aside Asia's defending champions China 24-15 in the Cup final, repeating their victory over the hosts in Saturday's preliminary rounds.

Speedster Aggie Poon Pak-yan ran away with overall point-scoring honours with 12 tries in total as she grabbed her second hat-trick of the tournament against China with Nam Ka-man also touching down in the final.

Hong Kong had beaten Japan 5-0 in the semi-finals after a 31-0 win over Uzbekistan in the last eight.

The Hong Kong men’s team won the Plate with a 27-0 victory over Kazakhstan in the final following a 29-0 win against Malaysia in the semis. Hong Kong were relegated to the second-tier competition after suffering a shock quarter-final defeat by China.

“The girls deserved to be in the final,” said coach Richards. “I told them before the game if they played as they had all weekend then they would win. We didn’t need to pull a rabbit out of our hat or anything we just needed self-belief.

“China looked a little tired in the final and we were still scoring great tries.They went into extra-time versus Kazakhstan in the semi so that had an effect but I also wonder if the fact that we beat them yesterday and in Dublin had anything to do with it; that has got to weigh on their minds a bit.”

It was Hong Kong’s fourth straight win over China this year and lays down a strong platform in their attempt to reach the Olympics at November’s qualifying tournament in Hong Kong.

“Our girls believe they can win now. I’m not sure they had that before but now we do. We went down by a try to China early on but we stayed strong and China couldn’t do anything after that. We played well and we won well. Now we will go back and start preparing for the Sri Lanka Sevens in October and the Olympic qualifiers in November,” Richards said.