Bigger, faster, stronger: Hong Kong prepare for shot at reaching Rugby World Cup
Full-time contracts, overseas camps and sevens players help raise level before Asia Rugby Championship, whose winners will earn spot
In any normal year, Hong Kong’s men could be forgiven a certain level of arrogance going into next month’s Asia Rugby Championship.
Unbeaten since Japan left a competition they had outgrown by the end of 2017, Hong Kong won last year’s tournament at a canter, scoring 189 points and conceding just 18 while sweeping aside the United Arab Emirates, South Korea and Malaysia.
The closest they came to losing in the intervening years was away to the Koreans in 2022, when only a last-minute Gregor McNeish penalty in a nail-biting 23-21 triumph preserved the 100 per cent record.
But this is not a normal year. For the first time, the winners will get direct entry into the World Cup – a prize that hangs like a shadow over all those involved.
“It’s a position not many get to be in,” Andrew Douglas, the Hong Kong head coach, said. “I know it sounds cliche, but we’ll deal with it one game at a time, because we have to. We can’t think of only one part of that. UAE and Korea have both lifted their games as well in terms of full-time programmes.
“So you can’t just think that it’s going to be the same as last year, but we’re certainly not walking away from the fact that there’s a lot of pressure on it.”