Analysis | Rugby World Cup will remain out of Hong Kong’s reach until there is wholesale change to way game is run at home and abroad
- More opportunities to play internationals central to any progression in national team’s ability to reach global tournaments
- But the club game in Hong Kong must evolve too, and winning the premiership can no longer be the ultimate goal
When the Hong Kong Rugby Union sits down to pick over the bones of the men’s latest attempt to qualify for a World Cup, it will do so with a clear idea of what must be done if the next time is to end in success.
The chances of the team beating Portugal and the USA in Dubai this month were always slim, and that might be overstating the case. But it would be wrong to suggest anyone connected with the squad went into the tournament with anything other than a clear understanding of what lay ahead.
There is a significant gulf in class between Hong Kong and the likes of Patrice Lagisquet’s Portuguese side, who will be playing in France next year, and only fundamental changes to the way the game is run in the city, and the opportunities available internationally, will close that gap.
Lagisquet back to day job after guiding Portugal to Rugby World Cup
The union has already embarked on a wholesale review of Hong Kong’s domestic competition, and has accepted that the 2031 World Cup in the United States is a more realistic goal for qualification than 2027.
World Rugby recognises that things have to change as well. Alan Gilpin, the CEO of the game’s governing body, was on hand to watch Portugal’s dramatic 16-all draw with the USA and Hong Kong’s equally absorbing 22-18 win over Kenya last week.
His remark that Hong Kong were in exactly the same position as four years ago spoke volumes, but it was not made without an acknowledgement of the struggles of the past three years, nor where his organisation could make a difference.
“If you’re in the position that Hong Kong and Korea are in, where you’re just underneath that level you need to be at to make the big global tournaments, how do they progress?” he said.
The CEO identified investment in more competition regionally, not just the Asia Rugby Championship, more investment in high performance and player pathways, so those good enough can play at a higher level.
Internationally, Hong Kong and South Korea have long since outgrown their immediate surrounds, but have not yet grown up enough to step outside the confines of Asia Rugby tournaments with any hope for success.
And herein lies the problem. Development requires competition, but as far as Hong Kong and Korea are concerned they only have each other, and that for just one game a year.
“How do we find for Hong Kong and Korea the right types of competitions more often for them to be playing at the level they need to play at to continue to improve, that’s a conversation we’ve had a lot with Asia Rugby,” Gilpin said.
“Here we are with Hong Kong in this final qualification tournament, as they were four years ago, how do we make sure they have the opportunity to be in an elevated position in four years’ time.”
Everyone recognises the gap will not be closed with the status quo, and if the men’s World Cup does expand to 24 teams, with an extra place for Asia as has been suggested, then that issue must be resolved.
Especially as the governing body has no desire to see the return of plucky underdogs being hammered by more than 100 points on the game’s biggest stage.
“And that’s a big part of the question about expansion,” Gilpin said. “We’d love to expand, whether that’s 2027 or 2031, but if we’re going from 20 to 24 teams, how do we make sure those next four are ready.”
It’s fine to have domestic competition, and then what? What is that stepping stone to the next level
The answer does not just lie in international rugby either. The inadequacy of the domestic game in Asia, with the exception of Japan, is obvious and it is there Hong Kong needs to evolve to develop players capable of reaching a World Cup.
Discussions at the union have centred on Japan, and a potential franchise team playing in that country’s domestic competition, bridging the gap between the premiership at home and the international stage.
If that is unworkable, then the player pathways Gilpin referred to becomes the next best option, or a club competition pitting the best from the region against each other.
“I think that’s part of the Asia-Pacific conversation,” Gilpin said. “How do we make sure there are opportunities for players in Asia to be playing in the right level of cross-boarder competition that is going to allow them to progress.
“And the same type of conversations are happening in North and South America. It’s fine to have domestic competition, and then what? What is that stepping stone to the next level.”
Ultimately the HKRU wants the likes of Alexander Post, Jack Neville and Matt Worley, all of whom play club rugby in England’s second tier, to be the rule, rather than the exception.
Players in the city would be developed to a certain point and then sent off to improve further in better leagues, no matter where that may be. Where it is not, is at home.
Six teams playing each other multiple times over the course of a season is fine for amateur rugby, but not if you have designs on greater success.
Too often in Dubai, players who were used to making three or four yards after impact struggled to make one. Not for lack of effort, but because they are rarely challenged at home.
The clubs of course will need to get on board, and if change is to come then the days of importing legions of new recruits in a bid to win locally will have to stop, especially as the five-year residency rule now makes it unlikely those players would ever represent Hong Kong.
It is here where the union’s review could cause discord, but the pinnacle of any sporting pyramid is success on the world stage and that only happens if the base is sound.
Gilpin said it was his organisation’s responsibility to help with that, and while it was a challenge it was “also an opportunity”.
