Hong Kong China out for 'redemption' in Dubai after underwhelming 2025

Hong Kong China head coach Jevon Groves has stated that his team are out for “redemption” in 2026.

Last season his men’s sevens side finished 11th on the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series. The season prior they had finished fifth and in 2023 placed third overall.

Such a dramatic comedown means the side are hoping to attack 2026 with a newfound desire. Their preparation for this has been positive, and saw the team win both the National Games and Asia Rugby Sevens Series.

Next week the side will begin their 2026 campaign in HSBC SVNS 3. Any team that places in the top two of that competition will qualify for HSBC SVNS 2, which will take place in Kenya a month later in February.

“It’s a pretty tough route to get to that end goal, but for us there is a tiny element of wanting a bit of redemption from last year,” Groves told hkrugby.com.

“We were disappointed in our results and performances, so that’s the main focus coming in. We’ve spoken as a group about improving on our performance from last year and I think that’s going to be a little bit of added motivation.

“It was probably an outlier how we played last year, because for the most part, when we’ve entered these competitions, we’ve been competitive.

“Previously we reached the final and were probably only a point or two away from qualifying, so, that’s in the back of our minds. This is a spot where we want to be competitive and challenging teams in this tier.

“If we get a result, it’s also a chance to unlock three more quality tournaments, which is something we’re striving for in terms of our development, and preparation for the Asian Games at the end of the year. So, this is an important tournament.”

Hong Kong China have been named in Pool A alongside Samoa, Tonga and Colombia. Jevons knows some of what the Pacific Islanders will bring to the party as regular opponents over the years, but believes that the South Americans offer a potential banana skin.

“We’ve probably been guilty in the past of thinking too far ahead, so our focus is to try and generate some momentum by getting a performance in that first game against Tonga,” Groves said. “We’ve played them a lot over the last few years. We know their style of play and what to expect.

“They are very similar to Samoa actually, so we are under no illusions that it’s going to be tough and it’s going to be physical. They’re going to get after us around the contact and the collision.

“We’re also trying to prep for Colombia, who are maybe a little bit more of an unknown but had a great result in their qualifier against Chile. To beat them in the final (pool match) is no mean feat, because they’ve been a consistent team in that Challenger for a number of years, so, it’ll be a tough group.

“We spoke with the squad about how we felt we have grown in the last 12 months as a group, and lots of it was related to the level of work capacity we’ve put into our training, the level of cohesion amongst the players on and off the field is better, and I think that, coupled with executing the game plan that we want to play, will hopefully lead to a good performance and a result against Tonga.”

Hong Kong China squad for HSBC SVNS 3

James Christie (cc), Seb Brien (cc), Callum McCullough, Alessandro Nardoni, Liam Herbert, Jack Combes, Julien Bourron, Bryn Phillips, Harry Sayers, Matt Rickard, Fong Kit-fung, Max Denmark