All to play for

There's excitement in the air as Hong Kong's sevens teams head to Osaka, Japan, to begin their quest for places at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The winners of the men's and women's competitions this weekend at Yokoko Sakura Stadium will automatically qualify for the Olympics, while the runners-up get a second chance via the international playoff.

The games will be held tomorrow and Sunday.

"I don't think they could play any more rugby than they have - it's now just a matter of getting them comfortable and confident that they've done enough, and keeping the batteries charged. There's a lot of excitement, we don't need to tell anyone what's on this, they know it," said Paul John, who will serve as manager of both teams.

There has been a noticeable buzz in training, admitted pivot Russell Webb.

"In training, we've been really honest with ourselves and our standards have been high," Webb said. "We are in a good position to get the job done this weekend. This is the closest we've ever been and I think that shows from our recent successes in the Hong Kong Sevens, the Asian series and the Asian Games."

Hong Kong will be riding some momentum following their shining achievements at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, where the men's team coached by Jevon Groves successfully defended the gold medal they won in 2018 and the women, now led by Andy Vilk, took a historic bronze.

"The challenge for the coaches has been balancing the training and prep, against how much rugby the players have had in the last 20 weeks," John said. "Just in the last seven or eight weeks we have had two Asian series events, the Asian Games, and training camps with China for the boys and with Spain and Team Great Britain for the girls."

The fact that the squads for Osaka are largely the same as those in Hangzhou points to a well-crafted program of player rotation and recovery at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, and further contributes to the confidence levels ahead of the tournament's start.

There are just two changes to the squads, with Bryn Phillips coming in for the injured Hugo Stiles in the men's team, and Poon Hoi-yan coming in for Ho Tsz-wun in the women's team.

The men are in Pool B with the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Thailand, while hosts Japan are in Pool A with China, South Korea and India.

The women are second seeds in Pool E behind Asian Games gold medallists China, and ahead of India and Guam. Japan lead Pool D with Thailand and Kazakhstan in the seven-team tournament.

The men will be looking to do better than the during last Asian Olympic qualifier in Incheon, South Korea, when they lost to the hosts in the gold-medal match.

"Nothing can prepare you for that heartache of four years ago, and that moment still stings for a big group of us, but we learned a lot from it," Webb said. "We are a different team even though we are largely the same players."