Hong Kong women claim first Test Series in Europe

The Hong Kong women’s 15s rugby team completed a victorious two-match test series against the Dutch team on the weekend.

Hong Kong women claim rugby test series in Holland

On Tuesday night the HK ladies beat the Dutch ladies 14-12, which also marked their first win over European opposition in the 15s format of rugby.

The Hong Kong women put in an even stronger performance on Saturday against the Netherlands to claim an 18-0 win and seal the 2-0 series win. You can read a full match report on Scrum Queens here.

Lead Hong Kong coach Fan Shun-kei said after the win in Holland, “This second win was so important to us. We just beat them in the first test, so it was a good challenge for the squad, especially with them bringing in more of their experienced players for this game. Our concern coming in was our physicality and the size difference between us and the teams in Europe. They are bigger than us, and that is just a fact that we have to live with.”

Rugby World Cup 2021 Qualification

The series win is important for the team as they build towards their Rugby World Cup qualifying games next year against Japan and Kazakhstan.

The squad used ten uncapped players prior to the tour to the Netherlands with a number of other players quite new to the national senior setup in Hong Kong.

“We need the same physicality we had today, more even, but we need to be much more skilful. The Asian sides are much faster and we will need to play differently against them,” added Fan.

The full game can be seen on Youtube thanks to the Dutch Rugby Federation.

Other reads on Rugby in Asia

• Hong Kong men complete their 2019 European tour.
• Korean men clinch 7s rugby Olympic qualification.
• The Japanese ladies complete an unbeaten Euro tour 2019.
• Read about the new Asia Rugby EXCO and the challenges in Asia.