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The World Rugby U20 Trophy 2024 takes place in Edinburgh, Scotland from 2-17 July and will see eight teams fight for promotion to the U20 Championship in 2025.
Hong Kong China have competed at every World Rugby U20 Trophy tournament since 2014, with a best finish of sixth in 2018.
The team will face fellow Asian side Japan, who were relegated from the U20 Championship tournament played in South Africa in 2023, hosts Scotland who lost all of their fixtures in the 2024 U20 Six Nations Championship, and the Oceania qualifier, Samoa. All matches will be played at the Hive Stadium in Edinburgh. The venue opened in 2021 as the new home of Edinburgh Rugby. It has a capacity of 7,800 and is located next to Murrayfield Stadium.
The 23-player squad has now been named for the opening match here.
Hong Kong China Squad – World Rugby U20 Trophy 2024
Hong Kong China confirmed a 28-man squad two weeks ago, and travelled to the tournament at the weekend (view full squad). The side qualified for the tournament by winning the Asia Rugby U19 championship in December 2023 at King’s Park Sports Ground where they beat Chinese Taipei 22-7 before defeating Korea 62-7 to retain the trophy for the eighth consecutive year.
Hong Kong China U20s Head Coach Joe Barker acknowledged that the winning campaign showed there are eligible players globally who want to represent Hong Kong China Rugby. “This is a really exciting factor that we took away, and obviously a massive learning that there are players that want to compete and perform on the national stage and put their best foot forward. The future looks bright.”
Of the selected squad for the 2024 World Rugby Trophy tournament, Barker says there is a lot of talent and personality, with some of the players involved also in the 2023 Trophy tournament played in Kenya – so they have experience at this level of competition. Quite a few players have also been playing in the Premiership in Hong Kong, while others have played overseas.
Some players to watch out for include tighthead prop Dave Bennett, who’s been playing for Hong Kong Scottish in the Premiership; scrum-half Camill Cheung from USRC Tigers who was capped for the Hong Kong China senior men in the victorious ARMC 2024 campaign; and fly-half Blake Elliott (USRC Tigers) who is contracted with the Hong Kong Sports Institute and has represented them as well.
Hong Kong China Performance Development – Representative Pathways
In 2023, Hong Kong China Rugby appointed several key positions within its new-look Performance Department, which was designed to support the growth and sustainability of the local game in Hong Kong and a core part of this is to help achieve HKCR’s long-term performance goals.
This includes Sian Moore, the 19-capped former Welsh international who has played or coached at Bristol, Dragons and Worcester Warriors, joining in the role of Head of Performance Pathways – a role that guides and develops sustainable pathways to feed into our performance programme, as well as overseeing the HKCR Hysan Academy, which nurtures the young talented players and looks to secure the sustainability of our representative teams. Sian has travelled with the U20s squad for the tournament.
U20s Head Coach Joe Barker joined from Hong Kong club DAC Kowloon, where he was previously the CCO for the men’s section, and has been in the new role of Talent Development and Transition Coaching to help ensure Hong Kong China’s younger players are supported in their move to the senior levels.
The coaching and management team have a holistic approach to player development, and according to Barker further to creating an environment of excellence, “we got to get them ready for life and what’s coming in the future. It’s a young group, and we want them to be better people moving on from this.”
The World Rugby U20 Trophy is a long tournament for a young group, and in addition to playing four tough international fixtures with relatively short recovery times. Barker added that the squad and management will need to ensure the environment is “fresh and lively while making sure everyone is happy and we can enjoy it as well.”
The tournament is a huge cog in player development for Hong Kong China and Barker concluded: “What we’re trying to do here, is trying to create role models for the future and role models for our juniors to come through. The World Rugby U20 Trophy means exposure in the media across the world, and people will be able to see that Hong Kong China Rugby is there.
“We’ll have young boys and girls watching these lads in such a huge tournament and being able to, one day, hopefully, follow these role models they are seeing on TV.”
World Rugby U20 Trophy – History
The age-grade tournament is a key part of World Rugby’s investment in increasing the competitiveness of global rugby by providing a meaningful pathway to the elite level for talented young players, said the sport’s governing body.
The Trophy tournament has been running for 16 years and has played a key role in developing players for emerging unions, with World Rugby saying that more than 600 players have come through the U20 Trophy pathway and gone on to play Test Rugby, including the likes of Georgia’s Lasha Khmaladze and Uruguay’s Diego Magno who have each amassed more than 90 tests to their name.
This article was posted in collaboration with our good friends at RugbyAsia247 – check them out for all the latest Asia Rugby news!
