Hong Kong and Philippines have mixed success in Hong Kong

Hong Kong and the Philippines both began their Hong Kong Sevens tournament on Friday as 12 men’s teams are competing for one coveted spot on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

For the hosts, they head into the second day of competition with an unblemished record, while the Philippines will have it all to do against Zimbabwe as they look to earn a first win.

Doing so would keep their quarter-final and therefore qualification to the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series hopes high, with Hong Kong guaranteed a spot in the last eight already.

With both sides in the same pool, their respective campaigns began against each other with the Asian Games gold medallists Hong Kong earning 33-17 victory thanks to two tries from Seb Brien.

💯@HongKongRugby beat Zimbabwe 14-7 to go two from two on day one @OfficialHK7s pic.twitter.com/qDln0eQVoW

— Asia Rugby (@asiarugby) April 5, 2019

In their second matches Hong Kong beat Zimbabwe 14-7 with tries from Cado Lee and Raef Morrison, while the Philippines were beaten 36-17 by Tonga despite one of the fastest recorded tries in sevens history from Jonico Hardwick inside 10 seconds.

Hong Kong will meet Tonga to determine who qualifies as the top seed from their pool, while the Philippines will aim to record their first win in Hong Kong against Zimbabwe with the quarter-finals set for Saturday evening.