England have put their faith in youth as they seek a fifth Hong Kong Sevens title in seven years – but Ben Ryan’s team must find a way to stop unbeaten IRB Series leaders New Zealand.
Ryan has named five of England’s Grand Slam-winning under-20s team in his 12-man squad for the world’s most prestigious sevens event, which begins tomorrow.
But the All Blacks – the overwhelming favourites to lift their first Hong Kong title since 2001, having won the last six sevens events – could all but seal a second straight world series title with 30 points on offer to the victors.
Saracen’s Noah Cato, Northampton’s John Brake, Worcester’s Matthew Cox, London Irish’s Jonathan Fisher and Leicester’s Ben Youngs are the young quintet Ryan has selected.
Cox, Fisher and Youngs will be making their sevens debuts – while the 19-year-old Cato is an exciting prospect, having scored six tries in five matches in the Grand Slam success.
Their presence will be complemented by the experienced Ben Gollings – who is the leading sevens points scorer of all time with 1702 points, 392 ahead of Fijian Waisale Serevi.
Ryan’s team will be looking to put an indifferent campaign behind them – they were eliminated from the last round in San Diego by Kenya – in the opening game with Canada. Defending champions Samoa and Sri Lanka provide the other opposition in Pool B.
New Zealand open against Chinese Taipei, before further Pool A matches against USA and Tunisia.
All Blacks captain DJ Forbes is intent on extending their 36-game winning run – a record – and ending their seven-year drought in Hong Kong.
“We’ll take confidence out of our past results, but we can’t rest on our past performances,” said Forbes.
“They’re the past, and you’re only as good as your last game in sevens.
“People are thinking that the series is done, but I don’t think we can leave anything to chance,” he added.
“As far as we’re concerned, we need to win as many as possible.”
