Britain skipper Robbie Fergusson: ‘It will be a hell of a journey’

It was Wednesday morning in Hong Kong when the dice rolled for RugbyPass. Bagging a spare seat on a shuttle bus to the stadium across on the Island was the quest, with either Britain or Australia the options heading towards 9am.

The Brits waved us on and the 30 or so minutes that followed were typical of any rugby team bus journey to training.

Pumping tunes. Gossip. A sense of wonder with the commute as it wound its way through the busy Cross Harbour tunnel and then up the elevation towards the stadium, a journey temporarily delayed by a truck with a heavy load negotiating a downhill reverse into a building site.

It was some hours later when RugbyPass caught up with one of the minibus passengers, Robbie Fergusson.

The photo call ahead of this Friday’s start to the Hong Kong 7s had just been completed, the Scot posing for one last snap with GB7s women’s skipper Emma Uren before stopping by for a flash interview and then the commute back across the harbour to the Kerry, the hotel accommodating all 12 men’s teams this week.

“This is my fifth or sixth time now in Hong Kong, so I know it pretty well,” explained Fergusson, the 30-year-old Scot who is back on the 7s circuit full-time this season after another XV stint with Glasgow Warriors.

“It’s always a special event and knowing this will be the last in this amazing stadium is pretty cool and will be an amazing thing to be a part of.”

Britain need to be on it from the off on Friday morning as their three-game pool programme opens against New Zealand, the defending Hong Kong champions, followed by fixtures against the USA and then Argentina.

It was in LA on the last leg when the Brits finally came alive for the first time this season, reaching the final after picking off Australia and Spain in the knockouts.

That has lifted them to ninth in the overall standings with five of the eight tournaments played and Fergusson is now hoping for a repeat of that improved form from five weeks ago.

“Our programme is just sort of developing on the go,” he explained. “We had a bit more time together before the last two events and I guess it’s now push come to shove coming towards the end of the season.

“Everyone is battling hard for that top eight so that work we have been doing and sacrifice back at home is hopefully paying off a little bit on the pitch, but it’s a really tough group again this weekend. We will fly into that and give everything we have got again.

“You can see from the results in the series that everyone is beating everyone. Form has gone out the window when you look at it. New Zealand were in the final in Vancouver and then they drop out of the top eight for LA.

“The consistency is not there other than Argentina. At the moment everyone is beating everyone, so your shot is as good as anyone’s I think.”

Last year, GB7s came very close to success. “We beat USA in the quarter-final and we had a hell of a game against Fiji. I think it ran into extra time and charging down the pitch, the crowd was just absolutely loving it.

"It’s a special place for the Fijians, they get a great following, so the semi-final last year against them was something that will stick in my memory.”

Progress on the HSBC circuit isn’t the only thing on the GB agenda as they have still to qualify for the Paris Olympics. A last-chance tournament in Monaco is coming over the hill in 11 weeks.

“Paris is huge for us. It’s all eyes on the repechage, June 21, 22 and 23, so with ourselves, South Africa, Canada and Spain being on the world series, it’s going to be a hotly contested thing for that last spot.

"It will be a hell of a journey if you book your ticket on the last chance and roll into an Olympics a month later. That is what we have got our big focus on.”

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