SILVERBACKS captain Vincent Kamali is confident his team-mates will go two slots better next year by winning the Hong Kong 10s, a subsidiary event of the IRB World 7s series’ curtain raiser ‘the Hong Kong 7s.

This year, the team finished third out of 22 teams that graced the annual tournament.

Silverbacks won all their group stage matches after defeats to Laos Development (14-0), Hong Kong Cricket Club (7-0) and Macau and Shenzhen (7-0) to progress to the last eight were they defeated tournament hosts Altus Kowloon RFC 12-0.

However, their fairy tale run was brought to a halt at the semi-final stage where they lost 7-0 against King Penguins, a UK based veterans club.

But with third place up for grabs, the team bounced back in a style by beating Australian side Double Bay 33-7 in the third-place playoff tie.

Kamali, who replaced injury-prone Djuma Adams Mugabo as the side’s captain now believes that the team has come of age to finally lift their first Hong Kong 10s title.

"We put in a very good performance and there is great belief in the side that we can go all the way next year,” the 25-year-old forward said.

Silverbacks finished fourth in 2010-their debut appearance.

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