THE national rugby team, the Silverbacks should expect a warm welcome when they return home tomorrow after a commendable display in Hong Kong.

The team did well after reaching the semi-finals of the Hong Kong 10s tournament, a subsidiary tournament of the IRB World 7s series’ curtain raiser ‘the Hong Kong 7s. New Zealand beat England in the 7s final.

Silverbacks started well in the one day tournament with victories over Laos Development (14-0), Hong Kong Cricket Club (7-0) and Macau and Shenzhen (7-0).

In the quarter finals, silverbacks defeated tournament hosts Altus Kowloon RFC 12-0 in the Cup quarter-finals, but their luck ran out in the semis after a 7-0 defeat to King Penguins, a UK based veterans club.

But the Silverbacks recovered well and posted a resounding victory of 33-7 over Australian side Double Bay in the third-place playoff.
 
And Rugby federation technical director, Gerard Nsenga thinks it is a worthy achievement of the team in their second appearance in the competition.

"Our target was to win the main cup but we played a formidable side in King Penguins, but reaching the semi-finals was good enough and am particularly pleased that we finished in 3rd place,” the 30-year-old said.

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