Hong Kong men’s XV marked its first home match since June 2019 with an emphatic 88-9 win over Malaysia in the Asia Men’s Rugby Championship at a packed-out Hong Kong Football Club.
Seb Brien paced all scorers with five tries while Hong Kong scored 13 tries in total to push a 45-6 lead at the break into the final 79-point margin in front of over 1,200 fans.
“We are delighted to mark the return of men’s international rugby to Hong Kong for the first time since June 2019,” said Chris Brooke, Chairman of the Hong Kong Rugby Union after the match.
“This is another milestone in Hong Kong rugby’s recovery from the pandemic. Today was a great celebration and the support from the rugby community throughout what has been a challenging period has been incredible. The team has picked up right where it left off and I am sure that next week will be an electric finale for the Asia Rugby Championship,” added Brooke.
Hong Kong’s first men’s home test in four years brought out a reaction in the squad as they jumped out to a 3-0 lead after 90 seconds through a penalty from fly-half Gregor McNeish, currently playing for VPC Andorra. That lead soon ballooned to 31 points by the half-hour marker as scrumhalf Jamie Lauder, Brien and No.8 Luke van der Smith added first quarter tries before Malaysia fly-half Fairuz Ab Rahman notched his side’s first points with a penalty after 17 minutes to make the score 24-3.
Poor kicking from hand and general indecision plagued Malaysia throughout as they continued to serve up possession for Hong Kong. The visitors could only muster one further foray in to the Hong Kong half in the early going when fullback Paul Altier, currently playing for Stade Olympique Chamberien in France, was sin-binned for an intentional knock-on, foiling a dangerous intercept attack from Malaysia.
Hong Kong would score two short-handed tries despite their opponents’ numerical advantage with McNeish crossing the whitewash followed by lock Callum McCullough, who alongside Seb Brien and Pierce Mackinlay-West was one of three sevens athletes to score today. McNeish’s fifth conversion brought the score to 38-6 before a relieved Altier exited the bin.
A moment of panic by the Malaysian winger with the ball in his own dead ball area set the stage for Hong Kong’s sixth score as a great rush defence produced ball for Brien’s second score and gave Hong Kong, China a 45-6 advantage at the break.
Malaysia’s hopes of stabilizing were dashed at the restart when van der Smit nearly ran the ball back for another rapid-fire score from the kick-off. He was clawed down at the line but Brien popped up with ball in hand shortly thereafter to complete his hat trick as Hong Kong passed 52-6.
Richmond hooker Alex Post then scored back-to-back tries at the base of Hong Kong’s driving maul, capping a highly efficient day for the forwards who also stole two lineouts from Malaysia this afternoon.
Post’s second try brought the score to 62-6 after McNeish missed his first conversions of the day, going eight for eight from the tee until that moment. Coach Lewis Evans then emptied his bench down the final stretch with forward Tang Man-chung earning his first senior cap for Hong Kong, China.
In the final quarter, Altier was shown a red card for a poor challenge in the ruck leaving his side a man down for the remainder. Hong Kong didn’t look any worse for wear as they added a third short-handed try from close to the line with another sevens athlete, Pierce Mackinlay-West, scoring to push the lead to 67-6.
Brien then collected back-to-back tries to run his personal tally to five and bring the lead to 81-6 before Malaysia’s Nazvi Fitri slotted a penalty to bring the score to 81-9. Reserve scrumhalf Bryn Phillips added an exclamation point to Hong Kong’s big win with Hong Kong’s 13th try of the game at the hooter pushing the final score to 88-9 after a conversion from Nate DeThierry.
“That was so much fun,” said a delighted Brien post-match. “It’s really nice to get back to fifteens rugby in Hong Kong and it was an awesome team performance today, which was exactly what we wanted. Sometimes games like that can get off script, but we just kept building that momentum for next week. We have quite a new squad so to have a performance like that ahead of next week is huge,” he added.
It was also an excellent debut as captain for centre Tom Hill in only his fifth appearance for Hong Kong: “That was a really pleasing performance,” said Hill.
“It is awesome to be playing rugby again in Hong Kong in front of our home crowd and it is a huge honour to captain this team. We’re just looking forward to next week now. The Asia Rugby Championship is really important. We have won it the last few years and we want to keep winning it and go on to the next level,” added Hill.
Today also marked the debut home test for coach Lewis Evans who was equally complimentary about his side’s performance saying: “It was a very comprehensive performance. We were focused on that more than the win and the boys delivered.
“We knew Malaysia would come out with intent and energy and I think we controlled that and took our chances well. So very positive and very pleased with that result. There will be a lot of headaches for selection against South Korea coming our way,” he added.
Additional reporting and images: HKRU