After seven years, the Philippines 7s team is making a return in the Hong Kong tournament tomorrow.

Philippine’s team Captain Danny Matthew says the whole nation of the Philippines is behind the players, backing them for this weekend’s tournament.

Mathew says they hope to improve their performance this year as they are expecting a physical encounter later on with Tonga in its last pool group.

“In the past the Philippines’ have played Zimbabwe twice and we’ve lost on the buzzer twice so hopefully our fitness is enough to do that extra step again and get us the win there. We know Tonga will go hard and they’re quite physical, so hopefully with some speed we can get around them.”

The Philippine side is pooled with host Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, and Tonga.

Fiji meets Kenya at 11.37pm on Friday in its opening pool match, they will then play Australia at 5.13pm Saturday before taking on New Zealand at 8.55pm.

The cup quarterfinals start at 2.58pm on Sunday, cup semifinal final begins at 7.41pm and the cup final kicks off at 11pm on Sunday.

You can watch the live tournament on FBC TV.