THE national rugby team, the Silverbacks left an impressive mark with their performance in this year’s 25th edition of the Hong Kong 10s.The Silverbacks progressed to the Cup semi-finals, which they narrowly lost to the local team Kowloon Legends.Englishman Dave Hughes, who made the Silverbacks’ trip possible said, “Rwanda had a great tournament. We came top of our group,” “In the cup quarter finals we played a very strong People’s Liberation Army Rugby Team. At the end of extra time it was a draw so it went to a very tense penalty drop kick shoot out which we narrowly won putting us into the semi’s where we lost to the Kowloon Legends,” added Hughes.After exit from RugbyFest, the Silverbacks payers are holding training with some of the elite teams, who are in town for Hong Kong’s Festival and they are set to complete a coaching course organised by the famous Penguins Coaching Academy. They will finish their visit by attending the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens.The Silverbacks trained with New Zealand in preparation for the 7s tournament last Friday and Coach Gordon Tietjens said the Rwandan team are one to watch in the future.The meeting between New Zealand’s semi-professionals and the African newcomers showed how rugby can break barriers of culture and language as they clapped, laughed and sang together.“I’ve seen them play on TV, so to meet them in person is unbelievable,” said Rwandan captain Lucian Bikamba.This was the first time; Rwandan rugby players met the titans of rugby sevens.It’s the third year the team has competed in the Kowloon Rugby Fest and after the 10s tournament, focus has been put on the sevens tournament.
