New faces, old heads and surprising omissions as Hong Kong enter new professional era

Hong Kong have named a 35-man squad for a tour of Japan next month, with some new faces and old heads among those handed contracts for the next stage of the team’s preparation for the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

There were some surprising omissions too, and of the 23 players who beat South Korea in July to secure the historic spot in Australia, 12 will not take part in the training camp matches against Mazda Hiroshima Skyactivs and LeRIRO Fukuoka, or the clash with Japan A at Kai Tak Stadium.

And while that does not signal the end for the likes of Luke van der Smit, Patrick Jenkinson, Mark Prior and Keelan Chapman, who are all missing through work commitments or for personal reasons, the group travelling to Fukuoka represents a shift towards a full-time programme and an eye on the 2031 World Cup as well.

Hong Kong China Rugby bosses have spent the summer doing some heavy, and potentially savvy, recruitment. In addition to Matt Worley, Marcus Ramage, Isaac Campbell-Wu and others, lock James Rivers has returned from Major League Rugby in the US to play for Scottish, with 20-year-old Australian forward Lachlan Doheny swapping a potential career with the Waratahs to join Football Club.

“We haven’t rushed this process,” Andrew Douglas, Hong Kong’s head of technical rugby, said. “We couldn’t do too much until we qualified in July in any case, and then we had to contract players who were working and had professional commitments, notification periods, and obviously a lot of things to consider before jumping in as a pro rugby player.

“It hasn’t been ideal in terms of our preparations, but it is what it is. Now we have to back ourselves as coaches to get the new players up and running quickly.”

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