Day 1 Of HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger 2025 Leg 2 Sees Mixed Fortunes For Hong Kong China, Japan, and Thailand
rugbyasia247
Posted On March 8, 2025
With everything to play for in the second leg of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger 2025 Leg 2 at Athlone Stadium, the surprise was the shock exits of the Hong Kong China men and women from the top-8 running, while Thailand Women and Japan Men looked to have done enough and are still in the mix. The Japanese men won both pool games and will play the Cup Semifinal on Saturday.
The Cup Semifinals for the women will be played by South Africa facing Czechia, and Kenya taking on Colombia, while in the Men’s, it will be Japan facing Portugal, and Canada playing Germany.
Thailand Women – HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger 2025 Leg 2 Day#1
The Thailand women carried on their good form and were fortunate to have the lowest-ranked side in their pool for the second consecutive week, but they easily beat the Mexicans 33-0 in their opening game.
Thai Women’s 7s High-performance Manager Hitoshi Ipoonsugi said after the opening win; “The main message all week to the team has been to do the hard things first. Today we saw the players execute that in the win over Mexico and we know against Colombia we will need to do more of the same. The camp has been really relaxed and we have embraced the reputation of Thailand as the Land of Smiles” and we have seen the players be positive this week.”
Thailand faced Colombia in their second and final pool game as they pushed for a top-4 finish in Cape Town in what was a thrilling and frustrating game with the officiating (we think all day across the day there was some below-average match officiating but that’s for another day).
Photo Credit – World Rugby – Thailand Women
The match started very close and it was competitive but the Thais had a red card early on with Rattanaporn Wittayaronnayut sent off. The South Americans did well to hold on to the ball and scored to lead 7-0 but Thailand struck back 7-7 at halftime through a Jirawan Chutrakun try.
In the second half, she added her second for Thailand to lead 14-7 and it remained physical and a good contest despite Thailand being a player down. The contest was effectively killed when the TMO adjudged a second red card to Thailand – this time to captain Wannaree Meechok (we even asked at the ground what it was for but were not given a clear answer).
Colombia tied it up with 2 extra players to make it 14-14 and as hard as Thailand tried, and they really did, eventually, the numbers made a difference and the South Americans scored to win after the hooter for a 21-14 scoreline.
Thailand will play Uganda in the 5th-place Semifinal on Saturday and have secured a top-8 finish.
Japan Men – Leg 2 Day 1 Challenger 2025 Leg 2
The Japanese men beat their Asian rivals Hong Kong China in the opening game in an absolute thriller and set up a final pool game against the Chileans who won the first leg in Cape Town. Japan started well and were beating the Chileans 10-0 early on, knowing that a win would guarantee a top-4 finish and secure them a place in the top 8 and a ticket to Krakow for the final Challenger leg in April.
A yellow card to Yusei Demetrius Jamal Kashima meant the Chileans came back to tie it up 10-10 and then took the lead 15-10. However, the Japanese side was playing with confidence and had their tails up, and came back at Chile one more time to edge them at the end 17-15 with Yohei Yamamoto scoring the late equaliser and the hero of the win over HKCR, Kota Nakama – for the second consecutive match – knocking over the winning points.
Photo Credit – World Rugby – Japan and HKCR Men
The young Japanese side has come a long way over these two legs and the head coach Phil Greening told us: “These are young players who are learning on the run and learning what I want from them as well as the demands of the game and if they want to be professional players and if they have ambitions of going on to play for the Brave Blossoms. It’s important for them to know about resilience and being robust, staying fit, and staying in those close games mentally and physically and they showed that today and it’s brilliant to see.”
Japan men will play Portugal in the Cup Semifinal on Saturday and are likely to have secured a top-8 finish.
Hong Kong China Men and Women – Leg 2 Day 1
The Hong Kong China women started the opening day with a good 24-19 win over Czechia – they had lost to the same side in pool play last weekend in the opening leg. The result should have meant they stayed in the running in trying to achieve a top-8 finish but had to play a formidable Argentina team in their final pool game.
HKCR Coach Robbie Fergusson said of the women’s performance in the opening game, “Sevens is a game of moments and you can see the opposition get momentum, so for them to dig in and look after each other, and the players speak a lot about the sisterhood and protecting each other and we could see it in the last 90 seconds of that win”.
Photo Credit – World Rugby – HKCR Women
The South Americans were too powerful in the end and ran out 32-7 winners, with Jess Ho scoring a late consolation try.
She told us, “For us not to finish minimum in that top 8 last week was really disappointing especially as there were some really close games and it was the bare minimum coming into this. We knew we were better than where we placed in leg 1 and I think we have proven that to the other teams here and to ourselves. We dont know who will play tomorrow but it doesnt matter – we still have to play the way we want to play and that’s important for us. Any team tomorrow we will face we are happy with and ready for the fight.”
We all assumed the side would be playing in the 5-8th bracket, but the Czechians beat Argentina in an upset win and it meant HKCR finished 3rd in the pool on the bonus points difference, thus knocking them out of a potential top-8 standing.
HKCR Women will play Samoa in the 9th Place Semifinal and can not finish in the top 8.
Photo Credit – World Rugby – HKCR Men
The day started with an agonising loss for Hong Kong China men after they led 17-0 over Japan at halftime, the Japanese side turned it around to win 19-17 – the winning conversion came after the hooter to effectively end HKCR men’s 3rd leg qualification ambitions. The side would have been seen as a potential top 4 favourite coming into the two legs in Cape Town.
The Hong Kong China men lost to Chile in their second game 7-24 (conceding two yellow cards) which ended their hopes of making the top-8.
They will have to turn their attention to the 2025 Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens where they will play Japan again, as well as China, in the new Kai Tak Stadium as part of the Melrose Challenge competition.
HKCR Men will play Brazil In the 9th Place Semifinal and can not finish in the top-8.
All of the results and fixtures can be seen here.
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