Asia Rugby Women’s Championship: Hong Kong relish semi-final with WXV place up for grabs
- They take on hosts Kazakhstan, who coach Royce Chan says ‘always give us a surprise’ – but Hong Kong won the sides’ past two meetings
- Japan await in the final and both finalists will earn spots in World Rugby’s new competition aimed at growing the women’s game
Hong Kong begin their tilt at the Asia Rugby Women’s Championship on Tuesday when they face hosts Kazakhstan, and they do so with an added incentive.
Should they triumph to progress to Sunday’s final, they will also qualify for WXV, World Rugby’s new international competition aimed at increasing the competitiveness, reach and impact of the women’s game.
Set to take place this October and November, the new tournament will consist of three tiers and feature teams from Europe’s Six Nations and the Pacific Four Series, as well as qualifiers from Asia, Australasia, South America and Africa.
The winners and losing finalists in this week’s 12th edition of the Asian competition in Almaty will join WXV’s second and third tiers, to be held respectively in South Africa and a location yet to be decided.
One of those representatives will be Japan, after China’s withdrawal from the continental event sent them straight through to the final. That leaves Hong Kong and Kazakhstan to contest the other spot.
Hong Kong, whose squad of 28 flew out last Friday, have encouraging recent history with Kazakhstan to draw on: they won both of their home tests against them last December, and are now ranked 16th in the world to their opponents’ 19th.
“In terms of the preparation, it has been quite challenging, but the opportunity to play in Europe definitely helped us,” Chan said. “We have always been focused on the first game against Kazakhstan. It will be a really close game and a tough game.
“It was good to travel as a group again – we hadn’t been able to travel together as a new team and management. Those teams in Europe are very physical and they had just finished playing the European Championship as well, so we have had good game-time to prepare for Kazakhstan.
“Kazakhstan always give us a surprise. I think it’s down to who can perform better and execute their game plan better on the day.”
The trip to Europe had given Hong Kong a taste of playing two physical matches with a short turnaround in between to replicate what they will face in Almaty, according to Natasha Olson-Thorne. Along with Rosanna Wright and Jessica Ho Wai-on, she was returning to the 15-a-side set-up after a busy spell with the city’s sevens squad.
“We’ve been building to this tournament for several months now and had a strong preparation [thanks to] the two recent hit-outs against Sweden and the Netherlands,” Olson-Thorne said. “We learned a lot from those games.”
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The anticipated Kazakh physicality was the key aspect identified by backs and attack coach Sam Beard as the Hongkongers target regional and global rewards.
“We’re expecting a big contest,” Beard said. “We know that Kazakhstan will bring a lot of physicality, so we’ll be concentrating on the things we can do well, such as playing at speed and moving the ball.
“Qualifying for WXV would be a huge reward for this group after all the hard work they’ve put into their preparations.”
Kazakhstan have won the most Asian Championships, with five, ahead of Japan, with four, and China and Hong Kong, who have claimed one each.
