China Women Go Back To Back In World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2024
rugbyasia247
Posted On March 11, 2024
The Chinese 7s women continued their impressive run in the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2024 by winning the second leg in Montevideo, Uruguay, while the Hong Kong China Men also reached the final and ended up as runners-up.
The three-tournament Challenger Series will determine spots in next season’s HSBC SVNS Series. The opening Challenger tournament in Dubai was won by Kenya (men) and China (women) in January 2024.
The shot venue in Uruguay meant most of the Asian teams travelled 30 hours + to reach Montevideo, and sadly for most of the weekend, Estadio Charrúa had minimal crowds, but they did turn up in greater numbers on Sunday to watch their men win gold.
China Women – Champions
The Chinese women look unstoppable as they didn’t drop a game in Montevideo and scored freely all weekend with tries coming from across the team. #11 Liu Xiaoqian was a real standout once again – scoring two hattricks over the weekend, including the final against Argentina whom they beat 38-7.
The side has brought in Sir Gordon Tjetiens as a consultant, and the team now looks to have pretty much secured a top-four finish to have a chance to fight for an HSBC SVNS Series spot in May in Madrid but they won’t want to drop their standards for the third and final leg.
China lead the Challenger women’s standings with a perfect 40 points ahead of Argentina on 34 and Belgium and Uganda on 28.
Pool Matches
- China 29-5 Paraguay
- China 28-15 Czechia
- China 24-12 Poland
Knockouts
- China 24-7 Kenya (Quarterfinal)
- China 26-10 Uganda (Semifinal)
- China 38-7 Argentina (Final)
Photo credit: Mike Lee – KLC fotos for World Rugby
HKCR Men -Runners-Up
Ten of 7s Head Coach Jevon Groves’ squad from Dubai returned for the second leg in Montevideo – with Ale Nardoni and Hugo Stiles both joining and the latter excellent off the boot all weekend.
Hong Kong finished atop Pool B with a perfect 3-0 record and a +100 points differential, the best in the competition, setting up a quarter-final with a powerful Tongan side. The HKCR men were an unstoppable force at times this weekend and they beat the Pacific Islanders 26-7.
“Against Tonga, we were focused on negating their physicality. The boys played very well in the
contact area and in our tackle defence, which set up some nice tries for us in transition,” said Hong Kong China men’s sevens coach Jevon Groves.
Hong Kong went on to play Kenya in the second semifinal and were straight out of the blocks thanks to a Cado Lee brace of tries before Kenya struck back just before the half. They withheld the winners from Dubai and edged out the semifinal 21-14.
In the final, Sunday finally saw a crowd at the ground but Hong Kong China men came unstuck against a good home side who beat them 28-0.
Second place puts the team back in contention for a top-four finish, as other sides like Kenya, Germany and Tonga also had lower finishes. Uruguay and Kenya top men’s standings with 36 points followed by Chile with 32 and Germany with 26 – Hong Kong China’s men’s team are in fifth place on the 12-team table.
Groves added, “I am really pleased with how we performed this weekend. Coming in some of us thought that reaching the playoff might be out of reach after the opening tournament, but the boys really showed up. That was some of the best rugby that we have played in some time in a tournament of that level.
The boys really enjoyed their appearance here, which was great because South America has not been a happy hunting ground for us previously…..Now we can put these learnings to good use in Hong Kong next month and in Munich in May.”
Pool Matches
- HKCR 42-7 Japan
- HKCR 19-14 Chile
- HKCR 39-0 Mexico
Knockouts
- HKCR 26-7 Tonga (Quarterfinal)
- HKCR 21-14 Kenya (Semifinal)
- HKCR 0-28 Uruguay (Final)
Photo credit: Mike Lee – KLC fotos for World Rugby – Hugo Stiles was excellent for HKCR men all weekend
Thailand Women – 6th Overall
The Thailand women never quite got to grips with the competition in Montevideo. Following their 7th place finish in Dubai though they have ended up one better this weekend even though they only won one match!
They still give themselves a chance of a top-four finish if they end strongly in the third leg and hope other results go their way. The Thai women are 7th on the log overall on 18 Series points.
Pool Matches
- Thailand 5-15 Uganda
- Thailand 7-10 Argentina
- Thailand 38-0 Mexico
Knockouts
- Thailand 5-17 Belgium (Quarterfinal)
- Thailand 17-28 Poland (5th place playoff)
Photo credit: Mike Lee – KLC fotos for World Rugby
HKCR Women – 7th Overall
Coach Andy Vilk’s women’s team features four changes from the squad in Dubai.
After starting the weekend with an upset of Kenya, Hong Kong lost to Belgium but beat Papua New Guinea 27-14 to finish second in the pool. The same PNG team beat Hong Kong China 39-0 in Dubai for the 9th-place final.
They were edged out in the quarterfinals by Uganda in a 17-minute battle and then oversaw an excellent win over Kenya to finish 7th in Montevideo with Chong Ka Yan scoring a hatrick. This was only the 5th time HKCR women faced Kenya, and before this weekend, all previous encounters were played in Hong Kong.
Chong Ka Yan, Julia Mba Oyana, and captain Natasha Olson Thorne, in particular, were excellent all weekend in what was a much-improved team performance from the HKCR women. Hong Kong China still have a a slim chance of a top-four place.
The Hong Kong China women are 8th on the log overall on 11 Series points.
Pool Matches
- HKCR 12-0 Kenya
- HKCR 5-24 Belgium
- HKCR 27-14 PNG
Knockout Matches
- HKCR 17-22 Uganda (Quarterfinal)
- HKCR 27-22 Kenya (7th place playoff)
Photo credit: Mike Lee – KLC fotos for World Rugby
Japan Men – 10th Overall
The Japanese men ended up in a disappointing 10th place in Montevideo. The weekend started poorly when they were badly beaten by HKCR, but the side struggled to get going and failed to make the Cup quarterfinals, which followed a pool loss to Chile in golden point extra time.
Head Coach Simon Amor said after the weekend “This was overall a disappointing tournament for our team….As a team, we will work incredibly hard to learn from these mistakes and show an improved performance at our next competition.” The coach had said that the team is trying to change the way they play to improve their chances of achieving success at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
They overcame Mexico in their strongest performance to reach the 9th place final where they lost to Georgia.
Pool Matches
- Japan 7-42 HKCR
- Japan 29-26 Mexico
- Japan 7-12 Chile
Knockout Matches
- Japan 44-0 Mexico (9th place Semifinal)
- Japan 12-17 Georgia (9th place Final)
Photo credit: Mike Lee – KLC fotos for World Rugby
All of the results from the HSBC World Rugby Challenger Series in Montevideo can be seen here.
Women’s Final Standings – World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2024 Montevideo
- China
- Argentina
- Belgium
- Uganda
- Poland
- Thailand
- HKCR
- Kenya
- Paraguay
- Czechia
- Mexico
- PNG
Men’s Final Standings – World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2024 Montevideo
- Uruguay
- HKCR
- Germany
- Kenya
- Chile
- Uganda
- Tonga
- Portugal
- Georgia
- Japan
- PNG
- Mexico
World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2024
The Series next moved to the standalone women’s and men’s events at Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium in Krakow, Poland and Dantestadion in Munich, Germany respectively on 18-19 May, 2024.
The top four teams from the Challenger Series advance to the relegation play-off at the SVNS Grand Final in Madrid against teams ranked ninth to 12th from the HSBC SVNS 2024. Four successful nations from this Grand Final play-off will secure their place in the HSBC SVNS 2025.
The Asian teams will first head to Hong Kong to take part in the Melrose Shield Competition 2024 which is part of the Cathay / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2024 from April 5-7.
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