Top two teams from Asian Sevens will qualify for Hong Kong World Series

Hong Kong will come out all guns blazing to end on top in the first leg in Causeway Bay today

By Shamseer Jaleel reporting 

from Hong Kong

The first leg of the Asian Sevens Series 2016 will kick off at the Hong Kong Football Club grounds at Causeway Bay, Hong Kong today.

Other tournaments this season will be hosted in South Korea (24-25 September) and Sri Lanka (15-16 October). This year’s series has also been pared down to feature the top eight men’s sides in the region – down from ten teams last season.

Hong Kong, runners-up in 2015, are the top seeds in Pool B ahead of Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Taipei for the Hong Kong tournament. Defending Asian champions Japan, who qualified for the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Series and finished fourth at the Rio Olympics, top Pool A ahead of South Korea, China and Singapore.

Hong Kong will be intent on taking advantage of home support at the end of the week, particularly after failing in the Plate competition at last year’s series opener in China made for some tough sledding down the home stretch.

The series will once again determine the Asian teams participating in the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens’ World Rugby Sevens Series qualifiers in 2017, with the top two teams advancing to the 12-team qualifier next April.

Sri Lanka Sevens Skipper Dhanushka Ranjan, speaking to Daily FT, said: “We will do our best to win with a good margin against both Taipei and Malaysia who are without their Fijian players this time around. Our game against Hong Kong later in the day will decide our fate in the top four and whom we will have to meet in our semi-final outing. Beating Hong Kong in Hong Kong is tough but not impossible.”