{"id":165502,"date":"2025-09-24T09:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T09:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/165502\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T09:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T09:37:08","slug":"rugby-world-cup-2027-looms-large-as-hong-kong-aim-to-get-up-to-speed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/165502\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby World Cup 2027 looms large as Hong Kong aim to get up to speed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Qualifying for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia was the easy part; now the hard work begins for Hong Kong head coach Logan Asplin.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Faced with the prospect of taking on the world\u2019s best sides in one of the biggest sporting occasions there is, the New Zealander must build a team capable of holding their own.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The first step has been to sign 26 players in the city to full-time contracts. Overseas stars have been brought in, the nucleus of the squad that won the Asia Rugby Championship kept together, and young players, some not yet qualified, secured with an eye on the future.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Matt Worley is back from Bedford Blues and has returned to his childhood home at Football Club, centres Isaac Campbell-Wu, who was with Bristol Bears, will play for Valley, and Marcus Ramage, latterly of Nottingham, heads to Scottish.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Having his players was something Asplin called \u201cpretty advantageous\u201d, and it allows the head coach and his staff to decide \u201cwhat a Hong Kong national player\u201d looks like.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Tom Hill (left) offloads to Josh Hrstich against South Korea in Incheon in July. Photo: HKCR\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ad976470-ce08-4965-82ab-9d79227b9595_32afda76.jpg\" title=\"Tom Hill (left) offloads to Josh Hrstich against South Korea in Incheon in July. Photo: HKCR\"\/>Tom Hill (left) offloads to Josh Hrstich against South Korea in Incheon in July. Photo: HKCR<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cHow do we take characteristics out of what we do and drive them for two years into the World Cup?\u201d Asplin said. \u201cWhat can we do now, and little and often to make 2027 successful?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Qualifying for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia was the easy part; now the hard work begins&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[108869,108875,64,63,108860,108872,59443,108865,1119,108876,10340,108862,108870,108861,108864,108866,108878,941,108871,29477,108877,108874,108873,760,108863,15131,108867,108868,85,108859],"class_list":["post-165502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby-asia","tag-asia-rugby-championship","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-2027","tag-ben-axten-burrett","tag-bristol-bears","tag-central-contract","tag-football-club","tag-harry-sayers","tag-hong-kong","tag-hong-kong-china-rugby","tag-hong-kong-rugby","tag-hong-kong-rugby-world-cup","tag-hong-kong-v-japan-a","tag-isaac-campbell-wu","tag-james-christie","tag-japan","tag-josh-hrstich","tag-kai-tak-stadium","tag-logan-asplin","tag-matt-worley","tag-max-denmark","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-ticket","tag-rugby-world-cup","tag-rugby-world-cup-qualifiers","tag-rwc-2027","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2027"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}