Hong Kong’s Rugby World Cup Dream to Face Mammoth Uruguay Challenge

The challenges of a two-day, forty-hour journey to South America are not the only tests facing the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union men’s national team as it prepares to take part for the first time in the advanced stages of qualification for a Rugby World Cup.

Hong Kong’s build-up to this historic match has been beset by challenges with players unavailable due to work commitments or annual leave. Preparations were also impacted by the departure of the Men’s Sevens team recently for a 10-day training camp in Canada in preparation for this year’s ARFU Asian Sevens Series which starts in August and the Asian Games Sevens competition at end-September.

Hong Kong qualified to advance to the second stage of qualification after finishing as runners-up in the Asian Rugby Football Union’s Asian 5 Nations (A5N) tournament which doubles as the region’s Rugby World Cup qualifier.

The team will now embark on a two-stage repechage process with Hong Kong slated to face Uruguay, (ranked 19th in the world after impressive recent wins over USA and Russia), on 2 August 2014 at the Estadio Chuarra in Montevideo.

The winner of that match will advance to the second stage of the repechage process with a home and away series versus the winners of Russia and Zimbabwe who play in the other cross-regional repechage match.

The ultimate champion of the repechage process will advance to the World Cup in England next year as the bottom seeds in Pool A alongside Australia, hosts England, Wales and Fiji.

After a congested domestic and international season, the team recently regrouped to prepare for the crucial winner-take-all match versus Uruguay. A 32-strong training squad that closely resembles the training squad for the Asian 5 Nations has been assembled. The final contingent of 23 players to travel to Uruguay will be whittled down in the week prior to the teams’ departure on 29 July.

For HKRFU Senior Coach Andy Hall, Hong Kong will need to use their guile to their utmost advantage and play a clever tactical game.

“We’ve seen video of Uruguay’s games against USA and Russia. They employ a direct approach as we expected. They have significant size and use it well. Tactically, they try to minimize time spent in their own 60 metres. They want to play in their opponents’ half where they can bring their size to bear from their driving lineout and their scrum, which is a massive weapon for them,” he said. “That will put pressure on us to be squeaky clean in our defence. We have told the players that Uruguay is going to have their time in the sun during the game and we will have to withstand that pressure, while keeping our defence spotless.”

“The battle for field position will be huge, it always plays a factor but against Uruguay it will be a key. Control of that middle third of the pitch is going to be crucial. If we can go without conceding a lineout in our 22 then we will be doing well,” Hall added. “They have a dangerous set of backs. Apart from Japan it will be one of the biggest backlines we have faced, but we are used to that and not unaccustomed to being slightly smaller than our opponents. For us it will be a case of using our guile over their strength.”

Adding to the challenge facing Hall’s charges is the unavailability of some key players for the game in Montevideo. Veteran props Stephen Nolan and Alex Ng Wai Shing are both unavailable, making countering Uruguay’s forward strength an even stiffer test next month. DeA’s Phil Leung and Valley’s Jack Bennett have been called into the training squad to add strength to the front row.

Hong Kong Cricket Club scrumhalf Kenneth Hsieh is also unavailable, necessitating the call-up of Hong Kong Scottish no 9 Charles Cheung into the training squad, while backrower Alex Baddeley, centre Lee Jones and scrumhalf Peter McKee are all under injury cloud.

Despite the disruptions to his preparation, coach Hall says the team remains focused on the task at hand.

“It is the biggest game in our short history and one that the players, coaches and management are relishing,” said Hall. “We cannot do anything about the journey time, or the fact that the Sevens players are also preparing for key competitions in the months ahead, but as always with this tremendous group of players, we will simply focus on the job at hand and get on with it. It won’t be the first time we have been underdogs, so as always there will be a massive focus on what we will bring to the table and the threats that we will pose rather than sleepless nights worrying about the opposition.”