The Cup of Nations returns this weekend. The four-team competition features countries selected with an eye on Hong Kong’s potential opponents in the Rugby World Cup 2019 qualification stages. 2015 champions and favourites to defend their title Russia, Zimbabwe, debutants Papua New Guinea and hosts Hong Kong play a round-robin series on three match days, – the 11, 15 and 19 of November.
“We want to win of course” said coach Leigh Jones. “The tournament will provide some important insight, specifically where we are and where we still need to improve, which is particularly important given the new pathways established for Rugby World Cup qualification.”
Under the new Rugby World Cup qualification format, Asia will send it’s top-ranked side, currently Japan, through to the World Cup as Asia 1. Asia 2, the spot filled by Hong Kong in the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualification campaign, will now play a home and away series versus Oceania 4, with the winners advancing to the penultimate stage of qualification, an international repechage series, which in the past has featured Russia and Zimbabwe.
In preparation for the tournament Jones has been working with an expanded training squad of 36 players who were given an extended break from the local Premiership rugby to participate in international training. The extra week allowed Jones to put the squad – comprised of Elite Rugby Programme players, Hong Kong sevens squad members, semi-professional players in the domestic leagues and National Age Grade graduates, through their paces.
“During the training week, we played a mini Cup of Nations format, effectively simulating the varying styles we are likely to face in the Cup of Nations,” said Jones. Who added “This is a great competition for us as it offers the opportunity to expose our players to high intensity matches against teams outside of Asia. With three very different tests in the space of nine days, we will need to be smart in how we use the squad and in selecting the right players to suit the different approaches we will see.”
First up for Hong Kong on the 11 November at King’s Park are Papua New Guinea who will be looking to continue a run of wins over Tahiti, American Samoa and the Solomon Islands that saw them win the 2015 Oceania Cup.
“It’s been difficult to get information on Papua New Guinea, so they are a bit of an unknown but we expect a tough encounter,” said Jones. “They should be quite physical and hard-hitting, so we will need to counter that with a very structured game and will rely on our set piece to perform.”
In Zimbabwe, Jones expects a similar style to that Hong Kong faced when touring Kenya last summer. “Zimbabwe aren’t too dissimilar to Kenya in that they are very athletic and play a very individual style of rugby. We will need to rely on our collective strength and discipline to overcome their individual skills.”
Zimbabwe will be hunting for it’s first win in Hong Kong and it’s first test victory in over a year, after losing all three matches here last year, including a 30-11 loss against Hong Kong. The Sables’ most recent test action was this summer when they lost to Namibia, Kenya and Uganda in the Africa Cup.
Russia, at 21, the highest ranked team in the competition return in good form and are likely to prove the biggest hurdle to Hong Kong’s efforts to win the Cup for the first time. Russia played their most recent tests in June – against tier one unions Canada and USA (both losses). Prior to that they beat Spain, Germany and Portugal in the 2016 European Nations Cup, losing only to Romania.
“Our approach for Russia will be almost diametrically opposite to the first two matches. They are power orientated with a big set piece and play a Northern Hemisphere style game. We will need a different philosophy for this test, one where we try to bring a high tempo into the game, negate their forward dominance and rely on more of our game-changers in the backline,” said Jones.
Cup of Nations
Hong Kong, Russia, Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea
Date: 11, 15, 19 November, 2016
Venues: King’s Park, HK Football Club
Tickets: Free
More info:
11 November @ King’s Park
5pm – Russia v Zimbabwe
7pm – Hong Kong v Papua New Guinea
15 November @ King’s Park
5pm – Russia v Papua New Guinea
7pm – Hong Kong v Zimbabwe
19 November @ HK Football Club
5pm – Zimbabwe v Papua New Guinea
7pm – Hong Kong v Russia
Additional reporting and image: HKRU