Hong Kong Drawn Against England, Argentina and Portugal for Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013

The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union’s National Men’s Sevens team have been drawn into Pool F for the coming Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 in Moscow, Russia.

Hong Kong is drawn alongside England as the top seeds, Argentina and the second seeds and third seeds Portugal for the world championship which will take place from 28-30 June 2013.

HKRFU Head of Performance and National Coach Dai Rees commented on Thursday’s draw which took place in Moscow, saying, “All the pools are interesting and very competitive. My initial thoughts for our pool is that we were always going to be in a tough group against two top-tier nations with the seeding system in place and Hong Kong being in Band 4 of the draw.

“But we have trained with England for the past two years around the Hong Kong Sevens and we know them well which will be an advantage. That one will be interesting locally as there is a lot of support for England in Hong Kong. We also know Argentina are tough and uncompromising. Portugal is at a similar level to us and we have beaten them in the past when we played them in Hong Kong.

“We will obviously be targeting two of the games in our pool and England have had an up and down HSBC Sevens World Series this year but I am mindful that every Rugby World Cup Sevens is a complete one-off. Wales proved that in the last world championship. They have never won an IRB Sevens event but today they are the world championships so we will be mindful that all of the teams are going to present a tough challenge.

“It’s great to see who we are up against in our pool but we are a long way away from it. We will need to analyse the squads that each team put forward at the conclusion of the Sevens World Series and it will be interesting to see if teams stick with their Series circuit teams or draft in players from their 15-aside set-up.

“Our goal hasn’t changed. We are focusing on our performance first and foremost with a target to finish as the highest-ranked Asian team at the world championship. We did it in 2009 and I am confident we can do it again in 2013,” concluded Rees.