Hong Kong China Men’s XV’s Squad Final 2026 Tests – “I think it’s a great opportunity for us one year out from a World Cup”

The Hong Kong China Men’s XV touring squad for the four Test matches in October and November 2026 has been confirmed, and the team is now in Europe.

We heard from Head Coach Andrew Douglas and captain Josh Hrstich about the Nations Cup learnings and what to expect from the one-off Test against Belgium and the three Nations Cup Tests against the USA, Canada, and Tonga.

You can read more in part one of the interview here.

Nations Cup 2026 – Lessons Learned in South America

We asked the pair how they would rate that first half of the Nations Cup, which saw them lose heavily to Samoa, a poor-discipline game saw them defeated by Chile, before the heroic come-from-behind win against Uruguay.

Hrstich started, “I think there’s been a massive amount of learning for us. That opportunity to test ourselves against teams that are ranked ahead of us in the world, which we’ve been begging for, and to finish off that tour with a win against Uruguay in their own backyard was massive for us. 

Obviously, we started the campaign pretty disappointingly with how we fronted against Samoa, and we went into Chile and figured out that playing with 15 is probably easier than with 14! The way we finished, I was really pleased with, and it gives the guys belief that we can compete at this level, which, you know, is massive for our group.”

Before heading to South America, the team stopped for a match against a Waikato XV, which they won. The Head Coach said that stopover “Helped tick a few boxes.”

Photo Credit – World Rugby – HKCR vs Chile Nations Cup 2026

Dougie explained, “I thought we’d prepared quite well for Samoa, but I think it was just a shock: the big, hard-running players running, carrying hard at you. They got out to an early lead, and we just never got back, and we never got any rhythm. We were under pressure and tried to play catch-up, and probably didn’t nail roles and tasks. That was a welcome to the big time type lesson in that particular game.

But I do think that game was an outlier. I wouldn’t say that’s reflective of our general performances that we’d had. In Japan, we’d beaten the Japan XV; we’d beaten Waikato. We had the feeling that we’d done enough, but I think we just got a bit of a wake-up call.

Against Chile – we lost the game. Chile didn’t beat us; we lost it. As Josh said, we’re down to 13 men. I think we played 12 minutes with 15 players on the pitch, so that was our own fault. And of those five yellow cards, four were fair. We shot ourselves in the foot, to be honest. To still be in the game at halftime, we were doing well, and even with 10 minutes to go, we’re still in the game. 

But we’re not going to beat Chile when we’re under that sort of duress, and obviously there were some massive lessons learned.”

Photo Credit – World Rugby – Nations Cup 2026 HKCR vs Samoa

11 months out from this World Cup, how confident and happy is Josh as the captain and the progress they have made?

“I’m very proud of the group we have, the values that we stand on, the men they are. The way that they go about their work, the way that the guys are developing and buying into our coaches’ systems.

We’ve got great resources as coaches, so the relationship we have with them makes it very, very easy for us to come to work and enjoy each other’s company and, like you say, work towards the World Cup.

It’s such an exciting opportunity. It’s the pinnacle. So we’re super fortunate as players that we have worked hard to get to this opportunity. It hasn’t been given to us. And as you said, understanding the journey that we’ve been on as a group and the guys that have gone before us is… is huge. I am just hugely proud of the people that we have in our building and the way we’re working forward.”

Europe-Bound – HKCR Men’s XV Head To Belgium and Nations Cup 2026 Fixtures

Schedule:

• 31st October 2026 – Hong Kong China vs Belgium – Edmond Machtens Stadium, Brussels, Belgium
• Sunday 8 November – Hong Kong China vs USA – Stade Marcel-Verchère, Bourg-en-Bresse, France (Nations Cup)
• Saturday 14 November – Hong Kong China vs Canada – Chambery Savoie Stadium, Chambery, France (Nations Cup)
• Saturday 21 November – Hong Kong China vs Tonga – Kai Tak Youth Sports Ground, Hong Kong (Nations Cup) – Now confirmed as a double-header with the HKCR Women also facing their Tongan counterparts.

The Hong Kong China Men first take on Belgium in Brussels before the Nations Cup matches against the USA and Canada in France, ending off the year with a home Test against Tonga – a match which Dougie confirmed is likely their final home Test before RWC 2027 for this contracted group.

Two potential new caps have been selected: Penetana Carter-Smith & Thomas Wilson, and there are quite a lot of changes to the squad which played in South America. Also a surprise inclusion of Faizal Solomona Penesa (Hong Kong Scottish) after he was caught up in domestic charges, of which he was cleared of the major ones.

Penetana, also known as Pene, grew up in New Zealand, playing youth rugby for Northcote Rugby Club and New Zealand Select Boys. He spent a year in Portugal playing for Clube De Rugby do Tecnico, before moving to Hong Kong and signing for Hong Kong Football Club, where he joined the full-time programme in late 2025.

Wilson was born in Scotland and played for Melrose, Heriots and Boroughmuir Bears. The scrumhalf has been with Hong Kong Scottish since 2021 and is a co-founder of Peak Rugby Academy. He has previously been involved in the Scotland 7s set-up.

Andrew Douglas said, “We just have to make sure that we start this tour with a positive performance against Belgium, and that is an official Test match, even though it’s not part of the Nations Cup. We have to think about that because obviously, we’ve got our World Cup, we’ve got Australia, then Chile, who’s our target to beat, and the All Blacks.

So we want to replicate this here. So we’ve got Belgium, and then we’ve got the USA, and it’s a USA game I’d love to win. They’re 14th in the world, and they’re on a bit of a run in the Nations Cup. We have to learn those lessons from that last campaign; at the same time, it’s behind us now, and we go forward with a really positive intent.”

Although the Nations Cup games were predetermined, the additional Belgian Test might surprise some, as there are naysayers who say they are unlucky not to be heading to Australia for RWC 2027. So how did the Test come about?

“I think they’ll be highly motivated. They’re still ranked ahead of us too. So how it came about was, we wanted a warm-up game before we played the USA, and Belgium was one of the teams put forward, which obviously I jumped at, because they’re a quality opposition. They’ve really developed their rugby really well over the last few years, so World Rugby thankfully organised that for us.

It will have an extra spice to it, because obviously Belgium probably think they deserve to be there (RWC 2027), to be honest, especially after our Samoa result. They drew with Samoa at the end of that Repechage – so they’ll be highly motivated to prove they should be at a World Cup.

We’ve gotta use that in our favour as well, to say that we deserve to be there. We’re number two in Asia, and we went through a process that was put in front of us by World Rugby.

Photo Credit: HKCR – Paul Altier

The Uruguay result, hopefully, put a few things to bed, but we’re very conscious that there are still doubters out there.”

Hrstich added, “Having missed out on Rugby World Cups before, we definitely understand as a playing group that Belgium, they’ll have us circled and they’ll be coming for us, and we’ve just got to be good enough to answer that and put another thing to bed.”

Dougie added about the Nations Cup fixtures. “The USA, I’m really excited about. Obviously, I spent time there in MLR. Canada’s always been a team that I wanted to have a crack at. They’re ranked in a similar ranking to us, and they’ve been to several World Cups, and they’re on the rebuilding stage. They provide another different challenge to the USA. They probably play a lot more than the USA.

And then you have got Tonga, who, again, have big dynamic ball carriers, some of the Samoan wrongs I’d like to put a few wrongs right against them. They’ve got some very experienced rugby players in their team.

It’s probably our last home game before the Rugby World Cup. We need to make the most of that, and we need to show people how proud we are to represent Hong Kong, not just by saying it, but in a performance that we know we’ll be proud of. Tonga will be tough, mate. They’re always tough,” said Douglas with a smile on his face.

“I think now they’re right for the taking in terms of where we are in our campaign, and it is. So, I’m excited by these games coming up. I think it’s a great opportunity for us one year out from a World Cup. We can only grow from these games.

Steve. This is a competition I’ve been asking for the last three years, ever since I arrived. As you know, I’ve been banging on the door and making a bit of song and dance behind the scenes. I’m just excited that we finally got there, and we’ve got this quality of game, as we did in July, and I hope the players realise how lucky they are to be living a dream.”

Photo Credit: HKCR

Hong Kong China Rugby News 2026

• 2026/27 Rugby For Good Hong Kong Premiership – Season Preview.
• Japan Women and Hong Kong China Men Defend ARESS 2026 Titles.
• Rod Lai Appointed as New Hong Kong China Rugby Chairman.
• Toby Booth Rejoins HKCR Men’s XV Coaching Setup.