Hong Kong aim to close ‘intensity’ gap, as season hangs in balance at HSBC SVNS 3
With 2026 only two weeks old, failing to make the top two in Dubai will end Hong Kong’s interest in the world series for another year
Jevon Groves has worked his Hong Kong players to the bone ahead of a potentially watershed weekend in Dubai, one year after the city team “couldn’t stand the intensity” of Challenger Series rugby.
Hong Kong must reach Sunday’s HSBC SVNS 3 final to advance to the next stage, a three-leg competition over February and March that will provide four tickets to the inaugural HSBC SVNS World Championship Round.
But as much as Groves, the head coach, is keen to stave off the possibility of no serious rugby until September’s Asian Games, he has fostered a unified desire to “prove we’re much better than we showed last year”.
In the 2025 Challenger Series, the forerunner of HSBC SVNS 3, Hong Kong lost all four group games over two legs and finished ninth. Rather than ban talk of that experience for fear of reopening mental wounds, Groves has used it as a motivational tool for one of the most pivotal tournaments of his nine-year reign.
“We’re not harping on about qualifying … we need to reset and give a true representation of ourselves, which we didn’t do last year for multiple reasons we’ve tried to address,” Groves said. “One was that the players felt they couldn’t stand the intensity going from Asian competitions to the Challenger, and we have tried to bridge that gap.
“We want to be competitive and a team no one wants to play.”