Hong Kong junior star Stiles set for Kenya Test

Hong Kong will field a significantly new outfit against Kenya during their two-match test rugby clash in Nairobi at the Kenya rugby union grounds on Tuesday and Saturday next week.

Head coach Leigh Jones named his 28-man squad ahead of their departure to Nairobi naming four players from the National Age Group (NGA) ranks in the squad.

Forwards Alexander Post, Mike Parfitt, and backs Hugo Stiles and Liam Owens will earn their maiden senior caps.

Stiles captained the Hong Kong junior team in the Asia Under-20 sevens tournament last week in South Korea.

A significant number of players from the Elite Rugby Programme, Hong Kong’s professional set up for 15s rugby have also been included in the squad that will be captained by back row forward Nick Hewson.

“It’s great to have the young guys involved. In the past we haven’t been able to keep tabs on them or influence their rugby or physical development and ultimately they lose out on three years of preparation. Recently we have started to reverse that trend,”Jones said in a statement from the Hong Kong Rugby Union.

The tour of Kenya will provide the technical bench with the opportunity to expose the young players into a high performance tour and match environment.

“Kenya is an important opportunity to examine these players at effectively a test level. It will be a fair step up from what they are used to at club level and we will see how they adjust,” Jones added.

History favours the 22nd ranked team when they face the Simbas XVs who have had a remarkable season with only one loss to Namibia in the Confederation of African Rugby championship.

Hong Kong last faced Kenya in 2011 in a four nations tournament in Dubai beating the East African rugby giants 44 – 17 in a lop-sided affair.

The team’s metamorphosis since then has witnessed Kenya beating top European sides and narrowly missing to qualify for the 2015 Rugby World Cup In England.

This change of fortunes has been one of the reasons Hong Kong will tour East Africa to face the 24th ranked team in the global standings.

“Kenya are a big, athletic outfit. They have lots of pace and individual power. I think it will come down to our collective strength as opposed to their individuality and I’m interested to see if we can be organized enough on the pitch to nullify their threats,” Jones admitted.

This is Hong Kong’s first senior international tour in 4 years.

 Hong Kong Team for Tour of Kenya

Adam Fullgrabe, Adam Rolston, Adrian Griffiths, Alex NG Wai-shing, Alexander Post, Ben Higgins, Ben Roberts, Charles Cheung Ho-ning, Charles Higson-smith, Conor Hartley, Daniel Falvey, Edmund Rolston, Finlay Field, Hugo Stiles, Jack Parfitt, Michael Parfitt, Jamie Robinson, Jamie Tsang, Jason Kjestrup, Jonny Rees, Liam Owens, Matthew Lamming, Matthew Rosslee, Nick Hewson (Captain), Cheung Ho-yin, Rohan Cook, Tony Wong Ho-yeung, Tyler Spitz.