All the pressure will be on Japan to win this weekend and a confident Hong Kong is hoping that will go some way to helping them pull off an historic upset when they take on the Brave Blossoms in the ARFU Asian Five Nations finale in Tokyo on Sunday.
Both teams are undefeated heading into the climactic decider in Tokyo, which also marks the start of the Rugby World Cup Trophy tour.
In what promises to be a special day for Japanese sport, the iconic Webb Ellis Cup will be present at the National Stadium in Tokyo for what will be the last ever event in that iconic venue before it is redeveloped ahead of the Rugby World Cup 2019 and the 2020 Olympics.
Hong Kong team manager Dai Rees admitted it will be a tough trip but said that their was “an air of expectation” among his side, who enter the last game unbeaten and knowing that a victory could book them a ticket to the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
“We feel we have put Japan a little bit on the back foot with our three performances to date. No one would have expected us to have won so convincingly and our performance against Korea will have unfortunately re-focussed their [Japan's] minds squarely on the task this weekend,” said Rees, who is also the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union’s head of technical development and performance.
“It is going to be a tough ask. But the way we are performing, and if we can put them under a little bit of pressure and still be in the game by half-time, then who knows what can happen."
Hong Kong defeated Philippines 108-0, Sri Lanka 41-10 and South Korea 39-6 to stay level with Japan on 18 points at the top of the standings.
Japan head coach Eddie Jones admitted that Hong Kong could pose a danger and said while his side would look to play “attractive rugby” the main goal would be to win and book the automatic berth available for Asia at next year’s Rugby World Cup.
The winner will join Pool B alongside South Africa, Samoa, Scotland, and the United States. The loser will go into a first stage repechage against Uruguay.
“We are going into our last qualifying match very respectful of Hong Kong but also confident that we can play good rugby,” Jones said.
“This is the most important game of the year and we expect Hong Kong to be very physical. They have a good set piece and a good kicking stand-off and will try to play a lot of field possession and try to dominate the scrums and lineouts."
Japan will field their three Super Rugby representatives in the starting XV with the Melbourne Rebels duo of Shota Horie and Male Sa'u at hooker and outside centre respectively and Harumichi Tatekawa, who has spent the season with the Brumbies, named at inside centre.
Hong Kong will make one change to the starting line-up that comfortably defeated Korea 39-6 a fortnight ago running in five tries.
Hooker Tom Bolland is unavailable and will be replaced by Alex Harris who started from the bench against Korea. Lachlan Chubb comes into the squad as a replacement hooker.
Japan has represented Asia in each of the seven previous editions of the World Cup and is the odds-on favourites to do so again.
Jones said: “We have got three Super Rugby players with us for the second week and we really want to play some good rugby and make sure we make the best of the 80 minutes.”
The match will be streamed live at www.rugbyworldcup.com from 17:00 local time (BST +8).
In the weekend’s other match, South Korea travel to the Philippines for a crucial decider to qualify for third place overall on this year’s table.
