Hong Kong men begin quest to join 7s elite against Samoa, Tonga, Colombia at HSBC SVNS 3

Hong Kong’s men will begin their bid to join the rugby sevens elite with pool games against Samoa, Tonga and Colombia at the HSBC SVNS 3 in Dubai next month.\nThe National Games gold medallists must win two of those encounters to make the semi-finals in an eight-team tournament that has Belgium, Canada, Italy and Madagascar in Pool B.\nOnly the finalists will progress to the next stage, HSBC SVNS 2, which will be held in Kenya, Uruguay and Brazil over three weekends in February and March.\nOver those weekends, those two teams will take on Kenya, the United States, Germany and Uruguay, with the top four earning the right to compete in the new 12-team HSBC SVNS World Championship Round, which starts with the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens in April.\nAfter the disappointment of the Challenger Series in February, when both the men and the women struggled against teams they expected to beat, head coach Jevon Groves said he was “really looking for performances that are a reflection of our preparation leading into the competition”.\n“We didn’t show ourselves well in the Challenger Series last [season], and there are a couple of things that we want to put right in terms of being competitive in that regional qualifier tier, and we want a chance to play in more tournaments,” Groves added. “We know that doing well in the division three competition can unlock a couple more tournaments of that high quality.”\n\nHong Kong begin their tournament against Tonga, but with all three of their pool matches taking place in the space of six hours, there will be little margin for error.\nNot that Tonga or Samoa are strangers, and some of the players will be facing them at least twice in 2026, with the Pacific Islanders in the same Nations Cup group as Hong Kong’s 15s team.\n“We’ve faced Tonga a few times over the past couple of years, and Samoa as well,” Groves said. “They have got very similar styles in terms of their physicality and have some good individual steppers. So they will be different from what we’ve faced in Asia.\n“Then with Colombia, we’re looking at a team that’s turned over Chile, which is no mean feat because they’ve been a quality team in the Challenger competition for the past couple of years.”\nGroves’ side certainly will not go into the tournament underdone, having won National Games gold in November. A “little break” to recover was followed by an intense five weeks of training.\nWhile players will get Christmas off, they will be responsible for maintaining and building on their fitness ahead of returning to training on January 5, with the tournament taking place on the 17th and 18th.\n“We have put a lot of trust in the players looking after themselves over that Christmas period, and ultimately, we will get what we put in,” Groves said. “We’ve put in a lot of work in this training block, and we’ve got to have trust in the players that they’re going to go off and manage themselves appropriately.\n“It is a test of that, but I’ve got full faith in the boys and they want to do well in this competition.”\n