Hong Kong all at sea against big boys of Russia
Jamie Hood’s men devastated after failing to keep up with pace and power of the mighty bears
Hong Kong are simply not good enough to rub shoulders with the big boys. That was the undeniable fact, however sad, as a devastated home team were left searching for answers after their campaign to win core status on the Sevens World Series ended in heartache on Saturday night.
Russia knocked the living daylights out of Hong Kong in the quarter-finals with an emphatic 24-0 victory, which was built on power, pace and aggression.
Hong Kong were like frightened salmon swimming upstream and trying to slip past the Russian bears - they were a good meal, defenceless and haplessly out of water.
We just made too many mistakes and we hardly touched the ball. In sevens, if you don’t touch the ball, you can’t score any tries
"At the moment, we are not good enough to win the contact areas," said crestfallen coach Gareth Baber, pinpointing where Hong Kong have predictably struggled against stronger opponents in recent years.
Last year, it was Italy who bullied Hong Kong off the ball. This time it was the powerful Russians. Going back even further, in 2013, it was Spain.
Taking Baber's stark view to heart, it means that unless Hong Kong are able to get bigger and more powerful players, we should just stick to playing in our little pond in Asia where we are the champions.
Skipper Jamie Hood was scathing in his post-match self-assessment of his team's performance. "We just made too many mistakes and we hardly touched the ball. In sevens, if you don't touch the ball, you can't score any tries," said Hood.
It was candid, but still an under-statement as Hong Kong spent perhaps 13 of the 14 minutes defending and came out second best in nearly every statistic in the game. One of the most telling stats was Russia making 52 passes to Hong Kong's 12.
