The value Hong Kong have placed on WXV3 qualification is an open secret, after a host of leading sevens players skipped a Challenger Series event to prepare for the ARC.

Hong Kong’s captain, Pun Wai-yan, who played at the 2017 World Cup, said: “Reaching the World Cup is the final goal, but during the whole journey our motivation is to get a new generation involved in women’s rugby.

“This is our last chance to qualify for WXV3 … if we get there, we hope there will be more exposure for Hong Kong rugby. It will mean more game time to build our strength and confidence, then we want to get the final ticket for the World Cup. We want people to realise Hong Kong are getting to world level.”

Head coach Royce Chan Leong-sze, another veteran of the 2017 team, which remains the only Hong Kong side of either gender to go to a World Cup, said her side could “leave a legacy” by beating Kazakhstan.

“Every Test match is important … but playing in a regional competition is massive, especially with the World Cup pathway [at stake],” Chan added.

“Absolutely, [we want to inspire girls to play rugby]. We have people working on social media [to raise players’ profiles], and players trying to get as many supporters as possible.”

Hong Kong and Kazakhstan are ranked 18th and 19th in the world, respectively. Asked if she was reading anything into the sides’ contrasting fortunes against Japan, after Hong Kong lost 29-12 to the world No 11 team, Chan added: “Everything is relevant.”

Kazakhstan have been an ever present during Chan’s Hong Kong tenure. Her opening two matches in charge, in December 2022, were narrow home victories over the Central Asians. Twelve months ago, Hong Kong lost by a four-point margin in the Kazakh capital, Almaty, to miss out on the ARC final.

“The Kazakh set piece, scrum, breakdown and physicality have given us a lot of trouble – we have worked hard on dealing with those,” Chan said.

“But we just need to play our Hong Kong style, [which means], a group of players putting in maximum effort and fighting through, in defence and attack, for every single minute.”

Hong Kong’s players watched the video of Kazakhstan’s loss this week.

“They have a lot of speedy girls; we have to pressure those players, and not let them run around us,” Pun said. “They have good kickers, too, and there will be a lot of physicality and impact.”

Pun said training camps in Australia, in January, and in Japan before the tournament had “got us physically ready”.

“In Australia, we played girls of a different size, and that built confidence,” she added.

Training at home has been less frequent, given some players are only part time, but Pun said: “We have given our maximum in every session.”

The 29-year-old said her team would “accept the nerves” that inevitably accompany a fixture of such importance. “We will use them as motivation to play better,” Pun said.

Chan added: “There will be some nerves playing in front of a home crowd. Everyone has different strategies for playing under pressure, the girls are coping well, and are excited about the game.”

Before the women’s fixture at Hong Kong Football Club, the men’s team launch their ARC campaign against the United Arab Emirates.