Asian champions Japan and all the other big guns moved smoothly into the knockout stages of the first leg of the Asian Rugby Football Union’s Asian Sevens Series in Hong Kong on Saturday.
Asia’s only representative on the Sevens World Series Japan underlined their status as the top team in the region hammering the United Arab Emirates, 51-0, and Malaysia, 28-0, to top Pool A.
Other top seeds South Korea, Sri Lanka and hosts Hong Kong also remained unbeaten on the opening day of the first leg of the Asian Sevens Series, which teams are using as a build-up to next month’s Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.
Japan coach Tomohiro Segawa was particularly pleased with his rock-solid defence which helped the reigning Asian champions to become the only seeded team to keep a clean slate on day one.
“No one scored against us and I’m very happy with our defence which is a key area in sevens,” Segawa said. “I’m also pleased with our new players who seemed to fit in quite well. This series will be a good experience for them.”
Japan fielded four debutants as they look towards building depth for their first full season on the Sevens World Series beginning in October, as well as the Olympics. Japan will meet China in the cup quarterfinal on Sunday.
Arch-rivals Hong Kong, who played in all four Cup finals in the Asian Sevens Series against Japan last season, easily defeated Kazakhstan 38-5 but faced a tougher time against the Philippines before eventually emerging winners, 24-0.
“We came out to win two games and accomplished that,” said Hong Kong coach Gareth Baber.
“We controlled possession well and I’m happy with the way our younger players who had their first hit-outs went. They didn’t look out of place. They were a bit nervy at times, which is understandable, but they played their part to make sure we got two from two.”
Teenager Michael Coverdale and Jack Capon made winning debuts for Hong Kong, who will face Singapore in the Cup quarterfinals. The winner of this game will take on the winner of the match between Sri Lanka and Malaysia in the semi-finals.
Sri Lanka started slowly with a hard-fought 17-5 victory over China before raising the tempo with a 40-12 rout of Chinese-Taipei, scoring 35 points in the first half.
“We had a good day. We stuck to our game plan which was to move the ball wide,” said Sri Lanka captain Fazil Marija.
Sri Lanka, coached by former Fiji captain Setefano Cakau, finished third behind Japan and Hong Kong last season and Marija admitted both teams will once again provide the main obstacle for the islanders.
“They are both physical sides and if we meet them, we will have to keep contact to a minimum and move the ball away from those areas. If we can spread the ball wide, I’m confident we can beat them,” Marija said. But first-up for Sri Lanka will be Malaysia.
With an eye on the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea have brought a young team to the first leg in Hong Kong and coach Chung Hyun Suk was happy after his team emerged with wins over Singapore, 50-0, and Thailand, 35-10.
“We have a mix of young and experienced players and this was the first opportunity for them to play together and I’m pleased with the way they performed,” said Chung.
Entry to Sunday play at the Hong Kong Football Club is free.
Additional reporting, photo courtesy of HKRFU