Only a last-gasp try prevented Hong Kong from lifting the silverware at the Marist Sevens invitational competition in Wellington at the weekend, as Rodney McIntosh's side nears the final stages of its Rugby World Cup Sevens preparations.
Hong Kong qualified for the Dubai showpiece in October last year, finishing second to Japan on home soil, and McIntosh has been delighted by the climax to their patient build-up in Wellington.
After a summer camp in July, Hong Kong won the Denmark Sevens in August. They played in the Jonah Jones tournament in Malaysia and also competed at the Hottest 7s in Darwin the week before travelling to Wellington.
Following the Marist event McIntosh will now refine his current travelling squad of 16 to a tighter unit of 12 to compete in Dubai.
While he errs away from judging the side too much on results, the coach does crave the kind of big win that has narrowly eluded them over the past few years.
Major scalp
"We're looking to take a major scalp in Dubai." he said. "We've been on the edge, in Hong Kong last year we drew with France, we should have put Australia away on the Friday and for this team it's time to turn a corner and start winning games like that. Closing down the close ones, keeping pressure on the ones that we should put away.
"We're realistic with our chances against England, but for a lot of our guys it's a privilege to play against them, so we'll step up to that challenge.
"Kenya are very good athletes but we'll probably be focusing on the Kenya and Tunisia games and targeting those.
"I hope we go away and put in some creditable performances and for the guys it's really important for them to enjoy the occasion. They have worked hard and it is a privilege to play at this level and test yourself against the world's best, and that's the message.
Boots on, switch on
"We have a saying in our team, 'boots on switch on', but when it's boots off they enjoy each other's company, they have a good time and that's part of the collective rugby experience for us."
In the increasingly professional arena of international Sevens it becomes tougher for the likes of Hong Kong to compete against New Zealand, England and South Africa, but this year the Hong Kong union has taken the unprecedented move of contracting four players - Rowan Varty, Mark Wright, Keith Robinson and forward Alex Ng - to allow them to commit more of their time to rugby.
"It's new, it's a step into the unknown and we would like to see how it goes," said McIntosh. "Eventually we would like to contract more players full time, but it depends what access we get to the IRB Sevens circuit.
"It's a question of balancing that, balancing the nature of Hong Kong where it's a career-driven and work-oriented place making it a challenge for these guys to commit to training and play rugby at this level, and then our third challenge is having our oversees players away from the programme. It all goes into the melting pot of making it a challenge for us.
"Our profile is still very young. A lot of these guys are in university or just finishing university, so this group of players will play together for the next four or five years."
World Cup Tickets
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