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Monday’s raid for tickets by the general public for this year’s Hong Kong 7s is an example of the strong following the game has in Asia.

With a majority of the three day crowd of 120,000 looking forward to seeing the likes of Fiji, New Zealand, and England strut their stuff many locals will also look forward to following the progress of the six Asian teams entered: China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Korea, Sri Lanka and hosts Hong Kong.

The comprehensive involvement of these nations is further evidence of the role of the Hong Kong 7s as a development tool for Asian rugby.
Japanese national coach and former All Black, John Kirwin, believes his team has the ability to be flag bearers of Asian rugby.

“It is very important for us. Our president is also president of Asian Rugby. He has given the national side, which is really my team, the responsibility of helping the other sides like Sevens to be more competitive.

“We really need to be the leaders of Asia, obviously we want to host the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and it is important that the world knows that we are the gateway to Asia as far as rugby is concerned.”

The Japanese men and women’s 7 squads will travel too Hong Kong off the back of their involvement in this years World Cup in Dubai.
“We still know we are a long way off the New Zealand’s of this world as far as Sevens is concerned, but there is no reason why Japanese rugby cannot be a world leader in the game,” added Kirwan.

Sri Lanka is another nation developing their rugby through rugby sevens. The majority of the national team currently play for ‘Kandy Sports Club’ – Sri Lanka’s premier sevens team. Kandy will warm up for Hong Kong with a two legged tournament, Digicel Professional Sevens, at Nittawela (Feb7-8th) and Longdon Place (Feb 28th-March 1st).

They are the current holders of the title following comprehensive wins over an Army and Air Force team in both finals last year.

The team will be captained by experienced campaigner Pradeep Liyanage, who led his side in their failed attempts to qualify for the Sevens World Cup last October. Talented youngsters Mohammed Sheriff and Sajith Saranga, both considered sevens specialists, have been called up to the Kandy squad hoping to push for selection for Hong Kong.

Internationals Saliya Kamera, Fazil Marija, Sanjeeva Jayasinghe, Gayan Weeraratne, Dilip Salvam, Sean Wijesinghe make up the Kandy squad.