Nine ‘veterans’ named in squad for Asian U20s championship
Hong Kong seeded top in Colombo qualifying tournament for the 2015 IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy
Nine junior “veterans” will get another crack at the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy after the HKRFU on Thursday named its squad for the ARFU Junior Asian Rugby Championships in Sri Lanka next week (September 20-27).
The 26-man touring squad features nine youngsters from the team that took part in the 2014 IRB under-20s tournament held at Hong Kong Football Club in April. Two of those players, fullback Hugo Stiles and hooker Alexander Post, will provide leadership as the team implements a co-captain approach for Colombo.
Hong Kong are the top seeds in the Junior Asian competition, which also features South Korea, Taiwan and Sri Lanka. The winners will qualify as Asia’s representative in the 2015 edition of the Junior World Rugby Trophy, to be played in Portugal next April.
All the teams [in Sri Lanka] can easily feed off mistakes. It is going to come down to the team that plays disciplined rugby that wins
“We know a bit about the teams – enough to know that we can’t take them lightly – as we played South Korea and [Taiwan] last year,” Hong Kong coach Pale Tauti said, referring to the 2013 qualifier held in Kaohshiung.
At that tournament Hong Kong beat the hosts 34-21 and edged South Korea 19-18 before finishing second overall behind Japan. Because of their Junior World Championship status Japan will not be taking part in Colombo, leaving Hong Kong as firm favourites.
But Tauti cautioned his players to not get too far ahead of themselves.
“[Taiwan] play a chaotic type of game. They thrive on scrappy ball and are a real confidence team. They’re tough to beat when they get their tails up,” Tauti said. “But Korea will probably be the biggest team and they play a very well structured game. They are always dangerous.”
Tauti warned, however, that hosts Sri Lanka could prove to be the toughest nut to crack.
