Hong Kong Prepares for HSBC Asian Five Nations 2012

An experienced and settled squad will boost Hong Kong’s credentials as they make a strong bid to topple Asian juggernaut Japan in the 2012 HSBC Asian Five Nations elite Top 5 competition – now in its fifth year - which gets underway at the end of April.

A 31-man training squad unveiled on Tuesday by the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union has the remarkable statistic of only one new cap – hooker Lachlan Chubb – which bodes well for ambitious Hong Kong who finished runner-up last year.

“We have a lot of experience in the team. Most players have been involved in the last two HSBC Asian Five Nations and we have a good crossover of players from our sevens squad as well,” said HKRFU Head of Performance and Coaching, Dai Rees.

Number eight Pale Tauti will captain the team which won three of its four HSBC A5N matches last season, barring a 45-22 loss to Japan, the closest they have come to upsetting the Japanese in recent years. Hopes are now high that they can run the Asian champions even closer when they travel to Tokyo on 19 May.

While Chubb – whose father Morgan Chubb also represented and captained Hong Kong in the late 1990s – will be winning his first ever cap, another handful of players will also be playing for the first time in the HSBC A5N.

They include Hong Kong Football Club front-rowers Ian Ridgway, Steve Nolan and Tom Bolland who won their first caps last December at the inaugural four-nation Cup of Nations, which Hong Kong won defeating Brazil in the final.

“The HKFC front row trio, lock Dan Watson and scrumhalf Cado Lee are the only other players along with Lachlan Chubb who will be experiencing their first HSBC A5N campaign. The rest of the guys have been around for a couple of seasons or more and this bodes well for us,” Rees added.

Hong Kong has also been boosted by the return of flankers Mark Wright and Rory Hussey. Former sevens captain Wright has been playing in Japan for Toyota Shokki Shuttles and missed out on the Hong Kong Sevens this year as he was struggling with an injury. He has recovered, as has Hussey, giving Hong Kong more dynamism in the back-row.

Sevens captain this season Rowan Varty and 12 other members of the Hong Kong sevens team have all been included. Apart from Cado Lee, Mike McKee and Peter McKee, the rest of the backline comprises of sevens players including fly-half Keith Robertson, centres Lee Jones and Ally Maclay, wingers Alex and Tom McQueen and Salom Yiu Kam-shing, and fullback Ross Armour.

Hong Kong head coach Leigh Jones was delighted with the squad. He said: “There are some good omissions from the team this year which shows we have built some depth within the squad. Inside the squad there will be some strong challenges for positions which is also a good sign for us as we enter a very intense phase of competition.”

Hong Kong’s hopes of toppling Japan from its pedestal were raised when new Japanese coach Eddie Jones named only one overseas-born player in his initial training squad – young New Zealand flanker Michael Leitch.

Unlike his predecessor John Kirwan, who included nearly 10 foreign-born players in his World Cup squad last year, Jones has opted to begin by trying to build a team propped up mainly with locally born players.

“We have probably got the best chance in a number of years of upsetting Japan,” said Rees. “But what you have to remember is that Eddie Jones is still drawing his players from a top professional league. They will still be quality individual players.”

Hong Kong will begin its campaign on 27 April away to the United Arab Emirates in Dubai. They will then host newly promoted South Korea on 5 May at Hong Kong Football Club (16:00) before the crucial encounter against Japan at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium in Tokyo on 19 May. The campaign will end with Hong Kong hosting Kazakhstan at Mong Kok Stadium (16:00) on 26 May.

“This is a fantastic competition for Asian rugby and has allowed us to get a real balance in international rugby with the rugby sevens being the iconic competition here in Hong Kong,” Rees said. “The HSBC Asian Five Nations gives kudos to the game of XVs in Asia that it thoroughly deserves and allows nations to develop in both codes.”

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