China Women Dominate Home Leg & HKCR Men Repeat Cup Success at Asia Rugby Sevens Emirates Sevens Series 2024

The Chinese women and Hong Kong China men won the second leg of the Asia Rugby Emirates Sevens Series 2024 at the Hangzhou Normal University in China, for both to go back-to-back this Series and lay a firm hand on being crowned the 2024 champions with one leg to go.

Women’s 7s Summary – Asia Rugby Sevens Emirates Sevens Series 2024 Second Leg

The Chinese women fielded an arguably stronger side than in the opening leg in Korea, with six Olympians in the squad of 13 for the home tournament. They were in imperious form as they looked to build on this ARSS but also towards the SVNS Series later in 2024.

Their Cup Final win against the Japanese was an excellent game and they were pushed to the wire as the Sakura 7s overcame the noisy home fans but were just edged out 17-24.

Photo Credit: Asia Rugby – Japan and Thai Women in action in China

#77 Xiaoyang Gao in her first full ARSS season has been scoring plenty of tries and will be a handful on the SVNS Series too, should she make the squad. She ran in 4 tries in one half against Hong Kong China in the semifinal which the Chinese easily won 48-0. Chinese #15 Dou Xinrong was also scoring tries for fun and came up with the winner in the final against Japan to claim the Cup.

HKCR had some disappointing scorelines as the squad missed some experience and firepower with players in the WXV and their last three matches against their main competitors saw them lose to Japan in the final pool stage 0-48 and to Thailand in the 3/4th playoff 7-32.

The Thais were much better this weekend, although they suffered at the hands of the Chinese in their final pool game, they nearly beat Japan 7-10 in the semifinal and beat HKCR to end up 3rd.

Paul John (Head Coach Hong Kong China 7s Programme) said, “We are very pleased overall after the first two tournaments for the women’s team. We would have taken where we are, including achieving our aim of finishing in the top four in this leg, so it is two thirds of the job done as we plan for our trip to Thailand.”

Photo Credit: Asia Rugby – China and HKCR Women in action in China

Elsewhere Kazakhstan showed they are comfortably the 5th best side and separate the top four from the bottom three. Singapore gave themselves a lifeline by beating Malaysia 12-5 in the Plate SF (although they made hard work of a side that was down to 4 players at one point) before losing to Kazakhstan 0-36 and ending up 6th.

Malaysia beat UAE to 7th 24-17 so both sides and Singapore are in a scrap heading into the final leg in Bangkok to stay in the top tier of Asia.

The Hong Kong China men looked untroubled on the opening day, even with strike player Max Denmark absent for most of the day, as the Men’s Series is proving to be a three-way contest but the HKCR men are now sit comfortably on top of the standings after seeing off Japan in another enthralling Cup final 24-19.

With the last play of the game, after Japan had led with seconds to go before having a player sin-binned for his chat with the officials, captian James Christie ran in the winning try to ensure they had two wins from two legs (Liam Doherty was arguably their best player across the two days but it was a solid team performance.)

Photo Credit – Asia Rugby – HKCR & Japan Men Cup Final ARSS Leg2 2024

The side had three clean sheets in the pool stages and easily beat China in the semifinal 29-7 thanks to a Max Denmark hat-trick.

HKCR Paul John added, “It was a great effort in the Final. It was a real nip-and-tuck affair, and it was a great try by James Christie to seal a win right at the end. We played really well on day one with some really, really good results. We didn’t concede a point across three games, but still probably weren’t firing quite as well as we had in the past. However, the boys are still winning games and still causing teams problems and still playing well enough to win those games and to raise their game when needed.”

Japan improved on their placement compared to the first Leg and pushed HKCR more than any other side. Now that new Head Coach Phil Greening has more time with the side we expect an upward improvement but it will be a tight contest between them and China to end up in the top two, alongside Hong Kong China barring any mishaps.

Photo Credit – Asia Rugby – Korea and China Men – ARSS Leg2 2024

The Chinese lost a narrow final pool game to Japan 19-21 and then went on to beat Korea easily to claim third 38-0. The Chinese #1 Zhiwen YI is a real threat and has been a weapon across both legs.

For the rest of the pack, Singapore had a huge upset win over Korea in the pool stages but then found it tough going and again finished in last place losing to Thailand 12-27 and will need to play out of their skins to avoid relegation.

The newly promoted Thais have probably done enough to stay up, but the UAE and Malaysia are still in the relegation fight as the Malaysians beat UAE to 6th with a 17-12 win (overturning a 12-0 deficit).

ARSS 2024 – Leg 1 China 7s Final Standings

Women

1. China
2. Japan
3. Thailand
4. HKCR
5. Kazakhstan
6. Singapore
7. Malaysia
8. UAE