Hong Kong China Men to Contest Gold At 15th National Games Rugby 7s

Hong Kong China men’s 7s team reached the gold medal match of the Rugby Sevens competition at the 15th National Games of the People’s Republic of China at Kai Tak, while the women were very unfortunate to miss out by a single point differential and will be playing for 5th.

The HKCR Women’s 7s side knew they had to bounce back, and put in two good wins on the second day, defeating Shanghai 27-14 and Hebei 36-7. That meant in the final pool game, Shandong had to beat Sichuan by 13 points, but they won by 12.

The men recorded two good wins on the second day, defeating Inner Mongolia 43-5 in their final pool match (thanks to a Fong Kit Fung hat-trick) and beating Pool B runners-up Jiangsu 33-19 in the Semifinal, which was the last match of day two. They will face defending champions Shandong in the gold medal match. Shandong beat Beijing in their semifinal, 29-7.

Photo Credit – HKCR

Players and Coaches’ Reactions – Hong Kong China

Hong Kong coach Jevon Groves said, “Two good wins today, but there was a lot in that last game that we won’t be happy with. We strive for consistency, and we looked good in parts, but in other parts, we looked pretty poor.

We are into a final now and we have to be better if we want to get the result. Sometimes it’s harder to beat someone twice in a tournament because they will be motivated afer they lost, and we could be a touch complacent because we won.

We are under no illusions that it will be a totally different game. Shandong can put us under a lot of pressure and score tries, we need to produce a complete performance to get the result we are after.”

Photo Credit – HKCR

Men’s co-captain James Christie added, “All of the teams here are strong. They all have good athletes, play good rugby and can test us, but we’re building our momentum every game.

Playing at home is an honour. It’s been amazing to walk out of the hotel every day and hear people shouting ‘Ga Yau’ [add oil]. It’s an incredible experience and it really motivates us.”

Liam Herbert said, “We don’t think we have actually got to our best yet. We’ve shown glimpses of it here and there in our performances, but there is still a lot that we can show, and I think if we come out tomorrow and give it 100%, we’ll really put on a show for Hong Kong.”

You can see more detailed Men’s match review and player comments in our content colab here.

Hong Kong captain Natasha Olson-Thorne said, “It’s hard knowing we didn’t make the final four, but we just wanted to come out and play. We knew we needed to park yesterday’s games and move on. We showed that ability in our first game today and built on it in our second game. Now it’s really important for us to finish another win tomorrow. We need to make sure we hit the ground running.

Photo Credit – HKCR

We are going out tomorrow to show who we are. We have family, friends and our fans in the crowd, and we’re going to go out and play hard for them and for each other,” added Olson-Thorne. She is one of two veterans of Hong Kong’s National Games squad from 2013.

For more from the HKCR women’s matches and quotes – see here.

The HKCR men will play Shandong, who are the defending champions in the final (a team they already beat in pool play), while the women will play the 5th/6th place play-off against Shanghai.

Shandong women and HKCR men still look favourites to win gold.

HKCR Day 2 Results