{"id":399163,"date":"2026-01-08T06:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T06:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/399163\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T06:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T06:26:13","slug":"hong-kong-star-outruns-dogs-dodges-cricket-balls-in-sri-lanka-before-crunch-7s-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/399163\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong star outruns dogs, dodges cricket balls in Sri Lanka before crunch 7s series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Harry Sayers spent large parts of his Christmas break in Sri Lanka outrunning stray dogs and dodging flying cricket balls, after Hong Kong\u2019s rugby players pledged to retain optimum condition for their crunch HSBC SVNS 3 campaign this month.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In a classic boom-or-bust scenario, the city\u2019s sevens side must reach the final of the eight-team tournament in Dubai on January 17 and 18 to advance to the next division, a three-leg competition that holds the keys to the inaugural HSBC SVNS World Championship Round, which begins with the Cathay\/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens in April.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Bomb out in the Middle East and Hong Kong will be starved of competitive rugby until September\u2019s Asian Games, save for their Melrose Claymores matches at that same Hong Kong Sevens.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Also a pivotal figure for the city\u2019s 15s team, who have qualified for next year\u2019s World Cup, Sayers said he would be sticking with the squad for the duration of their HSBC SVNS run and returning to the programme for Hong Kong\u2019s Asian Games title defence.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">With Nations Cup games forming an essential part of World Cup preparation in July and November, Sayers said he wanted \u201cto play as much as I can, within reason\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Harry Sayers (right) tackles a Chile player during Hong Kong\u2019s disappointing Challenger Series last year. Photo: Reuters\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ed4ec3b2-0bbe-49c3-bd45-e1eff4b1da70_03b59352.jpg\" title=\"Harry Sayers (right) tackles a Chile player during Hong Kong\u2019s disappointing Challenger Series last year. Photo: Reuters\"\/>Harry Sayers (right) tackles a Chile player during Hong Kong\u2019s disappointing Challenger Series last year. Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cI\u2019m nearly 30 and need to look after my body, but I\u2019m changing my passport, so I\u2019m massively committed to sevens,\u201d Sayers said. \u201cI want to play Asian Games and Olympics, but what part I play and where will be decided with the coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Sayers spent large parts of his Christmas break in Sri Lanka outrunning stray dogs and dodging flying&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[53572,64,63,36452,32976,5951,108876,10340,195830,26779,195829,212536,10018,20861,760,5993,85,1210,212535,18559,108050,8048,21418],"class_list":["post-399163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-asian-games","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cathay-hsbc-hong-kong-sevens","tag-colombia","tag-dubai","tag-harry-sayers","tag-hong-kong","tag-hsbc-svns","tag-ireland","tag-jevon-groves","tag-melrose-claymores","tag-olympics","tag-phuket","tag-rugby","tag-samoa","tag-sports","tag-sri-lanka","tag-stephen-mutch","tag-tonga","tag-university-of-manchester","tag-valley","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399163","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=399163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}