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Hong Kong Sevens’ return gets home team firing as they prepare for packed year, vowing to shed ‘nearly men’ tag
- Max Woodward leads revived men’s squad into 6-week trip to Europe for training and tournaments ahead of World Cup Sevens, Asian Games and city’s own showpiece
- ‘I feel like now the base prep is done,’ Woodward says, adding that his side must ‘get good at winning games’
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Hong Kong Sevens captain Max Woodward is in no doubt about what is at stake when his team hit the road for a six-week European training camp next week.
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There’s the UK Super Sevens Series, the HSBC Rugby World Series qualifiers, the Rugby World Cup Sevens in South Africa and an Asian Games gold medal to defend – and that’s before we get to the long-awaited return of the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens in November.
But if mental preparation is half the battle, his squad are looking unstoppable. A sense of purpose has swept through the side ahead of what Woodward says is an exciting but critical time for rugby in Hong Kong.
“This team and this squad have come so far since 2014,” he said. “It’s testament to everyone involved. We’re all really excited, despite everything, to have a World Series qualifier, a Sevens World Cup and the Asian Games in the space of a month and a half.
“There’s a lot of fire and competitive edge, which was not the case before. The younger guys are doing really, really good things in training and tournaments, and what we’ve seen is that they take the game, put it on their shoulders and say, ‘I’m going to win.’”
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