Hong Kong reward for winning Asia Rugby Championship would be clash with Tonga side featuring Folau, Piutau and Fekitoa
- The eventual Asian champions will have the opportunity to face Tonga, with the winner to receive a direct berth at Rugby World Cup
- World Rugby’s decision to allow players to switch their international allegiance paved the way for Folau to represent Tonga, along with former All Blacks Charles Piutau
If Hong Kong successfully defend their Asia Rugby Championship next month, a World Cup qualifier then awaits against a Tongan side likely to include former Wallaby Israel Folau and ex-All Blacks Charles Piutau and Malakai Fekitoa.
Folau, who scored 37 tries in 73 tests for Australia before his social media posts suggesting “hell” awaited gay people got him fired by club and country in 2019, has been named in Tonga’s squad for next month’s Pacific Nations Cup, which will feature hosts Fiji, Samoa and an Australia ‘A’ team.
His return from the international wilderness also puts him in the frame for Tonga’s 2023 World Cup play-off against either Hong Kong, Korea or Malaysia on July 23, to be held on Australia’s Sunshine Coast.
But there are no guarantees Hong Kong will make it past Korea, who are favourites to beat Malaysia in the first round of this year’s ARC.
They enter the game having not played a fifteens international since December 2019, since which the Hong Kong Rugby Union has scrapped its Elite Rugby Programme, seen numerous players and coaches leave the city, and made scores of employees redundant as it haemorrhaged money.
“To emerge from such a challenging period in the global game over the last two years with a chance at a spot in the Rugby World Cup is all we can ask for as players and coaches,” Evans said. “It is going to be an incredible journey for the squad and an incredible platform for the entire community to rally around.”
