Hong Kong teams prepare for Asia Rugby Championship with new Super XV competition
- Hong Kong Dragons teams take on World XVs made up of best men and women players from domestic leagues
- Women will travel to Kazakhstan for their competition in May, while the men host South Korea and Malaysia in June
Hong Kong’s men and women began their preparations for the Asia Rugby Championship in earnest on Saturday, with games between the city’s best and World XVs.
The matches at Hong Kong Football Club gave coaches Lewis Evans and Royce Chan the opportunity to take a look at some of the players they expect to be involved in several weeks and later in the year.
For Evans, whose players have only just started to get back into training after a long domestic season, having a warm-up game was one of the elements missing before last year’s clash with South Korea.
Not being able to “expose the guys to quality opposition” before that thrilling 23-21 win in Incheon was something the coaches wanted to avoid this time around.
Still, it has not been easy to find opponents and the union even considered teams from mainland China, but that idea was ultimately dismissed because the sides were not “quite the standard to challenge” the Hong Kong teams.
As it was, the Hong Kong Rugby Union put on what it hopes will turn into a new Super XV competition, featuring multiple sides. On Saturday though, the Hong Kong Dragons teams took on sides comprising the best of the rest in the men’s and women’s leagues.
