The other side in the tournament is Korea. The winner of the tournament goes directly to France. The team placed second plays Tonga in répechage. The team placed third drops out.

japan are hot favourites. After all last year they beat Hong Kong 91-3 and in April beat Korea 50-14.

They have a new coach, legendary All Black John Kirwan who was till fired Italy's national coach.

Kirwan is not taking the matter lightly, especially after Japan lost both warm-up matches recently, to the Australian Prime Minister's XV and to the Reds. He said: "We have full respect for Hong Kong and Korea, but I expect to win. There is a saying in our team, 'no excuses,' and I will want the guys to remember that."

In the next round of matches Korea play Hong Kong on 21 November and then Japan on 25 November, all in Hong Kong.

Teams:

Hong Kong: 15 Tsang Hing Hung, 14 Ricky Cheuk Ming Yin, 13 Jason Going, 12 Mark Wright, 11 Simon Smith, 10 Colin Bisley, 9 Robert Naylor, 8 Semi Iafeta, 7 Nigel Clarke, 6 Yuen Kin Ho, 5 Ryan McBride, 4 Daniel O’Connor, 3 Nigel Hobler, 2 Tom Cameron (captain), 1 Pete Spizzirri
Replacements: 16 Simon Leung, 17 James Wood, 18 Kris Marin, 19 Justin Gregory, 20 Fan Shun Kei, 21 Andrew Chambers, 22 Tom Breen

Japan: 15 Go Aruga, 14 Daisuke Ohata (captain), 13 Hideyui Yoshida, 12 Shotaro Onishi, 11 Hirotoki Onozawa, 10 Keisuke Sawaki, 9 Shota Goto, 8 Takuro Miuchi, 7 Philip O’Reilly, 6 Hajime Kiso, 5 Luatangi Samurai Vatuvei, 4 Hitoshi Ono, 3 Ryo Yamamura, 2 Mitsugu Yamamoto, 1 Tatsukichi Nishiura
Replacements: 16 Yuji Matsubara, 17 Yuichi Hisadomi, 18 Takashi Akatsuka, 19 Ryota Asano, 20 Mamoru Ito, 21 Tomoki Kitagawa, 22 Kenji Shomen

Date: Saturday, 18 November 2006
Kick-off: 19.30
Venue: Hong Kong Football Club
Referee: Chris Pollock (New Zealand)
Touch judges: James Leckie, George Ayoub (both Australia)