Tag: ARC2019

Hong Kong successfully defended their Asia Men’s Rugby Champions title beating South Korea 64-3 at Hong Kong Football Club.

A day of superb individual performances at the Hong Kong Football Club saw the hosts secure a bonus point, and a 26-0 lead, after just 20 minutes.

Hong Kong were on the front foot from the kick-off, exerting enough pressure on the Korean defence to put fullback Jack Neville over for the game’s first try after 10 minutes. Wing Seb Brien and centre Ben Axten-Burrett added tries in the next ten minutes before Neville bagged a first half brace to push Hong Kong’s lead to 26-0.

Starved of both space and ball, South Korea could only muster a penalty in reply deep in the half. A red card for a dangerous tackle on Harry Sayers left Korea a man down for the remainder, creating space for a Tyler Spitz try late to bring the total to 31-3 at the break.

The second half was more of the same with Hong Kong entertaining the home crowd with four more tries.

Fly half Matt Rosslee started the scoring shortly after the re-start, tiptoeing down the line before breaking in behind the centre defence to push the score to 38-3 after he converted his own effort.

The forwards muscled in on the action with tries from Callum McCullough, who scored a brace in the second half, including a 60-metre solo effort that saw the big man swerving and dummying the defence beautifully.

McCullough, one of the finds of the ARC campaign, was joined by another new cap on the score sheet in the second half when Fai Solomona crossed the whitewash, showing some superior conditioning to finish off another long-range Hong Kong try.

Ben Axten-Burrett served up that try and capped a fine individual performance with a battering try of his own moments later when the forwards demolished the understrength Korean pack on their line to produce another in a day-long series of fine attacking platforms. Axten-Burrett shoulder charged his way through two defenders for an emphatic finish.

McCullough’s loping effort, with hooker Alexander Post in eager support served as the perfect capping for a day when Hong Kong scored nine tries, running their last two match total to 20, to remain Asian champions.

Hong Kong’s bonus point win sees them finish on a perfect 20 of 20 possible points with South Korea on ten and Malaysia on one.

While it took Hong Kong a half-century to claim its first ever Asia Rugby title, a second convincing run against the region’s top contenders sets an exciting stage for the return of Japan to the competition in 2020.

Hong Kong v South Korea (Hong Kong Football Club, 29 June)

1. Ben Higgins, 2. Alex Post, 3. Grant Kemp, 4. Fin Field, 5. Kyle Sullivan, 6. James Cunningham, 7. Callum Mccullough, 8. Kane Boucaut, 9. Liam Slatem (Captain), 10. Matt Rosslee, 11. Harry Sayers, 12. Ben Axten-Burrett, 13. Tyler Spitz 14. Seb Brien, 15. Jack Neville,
Reserves: 16. Callum Mcfeat Smith 17. Mitch Andrews, 18. Faizal Solomona, 19. Craig Lodge, 20. Sam Tsoi, 21. Jamie Lauder, 22. Lewis Warer, 23, Rob Keith

Additional reporting and images HKRU, Tiger Super Sports

Hong Kong stayed on track to retain the Asia Rugby Championship with a clinical 71-0 whitewash of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.

After a positive performance last week, Malaysia’s negative tactics at home were a surprise, but seemingly from the outset the hosts planned to frustrate Hong Kong. That plan failed, with the visitors leading 33-0 at the break having secured a bonus point for scoring four with minutes left in the opening stanza.

Hong Kong added lineout dominance to its scrum superiority from last week’s reverse fixture, frustrating the Malaysian attack on multiple levels. Hong Kong also dominated possession, but unlike last week, converted it into points with a 10-try haul.

The reigning Asian Champions made their intent clear from the kick-off, forcing the Malaysians back deep into their own twenty-two where their defence repelled the initial engagements, but eventually conceded one too many professional fouls with the referee awarding a penalty try in just the 6th minute, handing Hong Kong a 7-0 advantage.

In the 12th minute, Malaysia’s cynical play was again penalised with a sin bin, putting them under further pressure. Given all of Hong Kong’s early possession, the scoreboard looked frustratingly similar to that from last week at Hong Kong Football Club, where the hosts could not convert opportunities into points.

Unlike that fixture, Hong Kong maintained its discipline and composure and the relentless pressure soon forced the floodgates open with visitors scoring three more first-half tries:

Wing Harry Sayers pushed Hong Kong’s lead to 14-0 after scoring untouched from an attacking scrum in the 19th minute. Five minutes later, captain Liam Slatem added a good line break to get behind the Malaysian defence and produced a well-timed outlet pass to the onrushing Tyler Spitz with the pugnacious centre flashing the final 35 metres for another try. Matt Rosslee’s conversion was wide but Hong Kong had extended its lead to 19-0.

Paul Altier converted another attacking opportunity seconds later, benefiting from a line break sparked by fly half Jack Neville, for the bonus point try as Hong Kong pushed its lead to 33-0 with 40 minutes of action left.

The second half proved more of the same as Hong Kong exorcised its frustrations from a fortnight ago, with seven tries down the stretch.

Slatem started the action with a typical sniping try after the forwards continued to plague the Malaysian lineout in the second half, stealing their third throw-in of the game on the Malaysian line with Slatem darting in to touch the bouncing ball down over the line.

A nice solo effort from Altier saw the current Hong Kong U20 captain, playing alongside his co-captain Sam Tsoi tonight, convert a 60-metre break for his brace, before No.8 Kane Boucaut burrowed over for his first try moments later as Hong Kong pushed its lead to 52-nil.

Sayers, another player capped for the first time in this year’s Asia Rugby Championship, collected his brace in the 67th minute finishing off a broken attacking play as the Malaysian defence capitulated down the stretch. Jack Neville and Lewis Warner added tries in the final quarter with Matt Rosslee converting seven of nine on the day to give Hong Kong the 71-0 win.

Slatem credited the win to a more experienced selection this weekend and a more professional outlook saying, “Last week, we played a young side and Malaysia really brought it, which was great for the young guys to get that experience and Malaysia really brought it. This week we really worked hard in our preparation and I think that experience in the squad and that little bit more professionalism got us over the line.

“Now we need to reset, get our recovery on point and do our homework on Korea and hopefully get a result next Saturday,” said the captain.

Hong Kong Squad V Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, 22 June):

1. Ben Higgins, 2. Alex Post, 3. Grant Kemp, 4. Fin Field, 5. Kyle Sullivan, 6. Callum Mccullough, 7. James Cunningham, 8. Kane Boucaut, 9. Liam Slatem (C), 10. Jack Neville, 11. Conor Hartley, 12. Matt Rosslee, 13. Tyler Spitz, 14. Harry Sayers, 15. Paul Altier
Reserves: 16. Mitch Andrews, 17. Dan Barlow, 18. Faisal Solomona, 19.Sam Tsoi, 20. Cris Pierrepont, 21. Jamie Lauder, 22. Benjamin Axten-Burrett, 23. Lewis Warner

Additional reporting and images HKRU, Tiger Super Sports

Hong Kong earned a tough 30-24 win over Malaysia in the Asia Men’s Rugby Championship 2019. The bonus point win lifts Hong Kong – defending its first ever Asian title, to the top of the table, level with South Korea but with the better points differential and a game in hand.

The taut nature of the match, makes next week’s return leg in Kuala Lumpur that much more interesting, Malaysia coach Brad Mika was pleased with his team’s outing, saying, “I’m really proud of the boys, they showed some character we hadn’t seen in the first two games. We talked about self-belief a lot this week and I think they surprised themselves a bit today. We are looking forward to having another crack at them next week, but I am sure they will come back much stronger.”

Malaysia took the early lead in the match and narrowed a 17-point margin to three points in the final ten minutes, despite conceding significant possession and territorial advantage to the hosts. Hong Kong generated an overwhelming number of chances on the day, but a mixture of stiff defence from the visitors and a bit of offensive rustiness saw most of those chances go awry.

Hong Kong started brilliantly, turning Malaysia over from the kick off to drive to the visitor’s try line; but, as they would throughout the day, the Malaysian defence managed to produce a turnover or force the ball from Hong Kong’s grasp at key moments.

With the turnover Malaysia were on the counter-attack, one of the strengths of their game, with big No.8 Etoni Saukura doing the early damage scoring the game’s opening try after just 8 minutes.

Scrumhalf Bryn Phillips put the hosts on the board seven minutes later, as he collected the ball off the back of a driving scrum to score neatly to the right of Malaysia’s sticks. Flyhalf Paul Altier’s conversion was off target, 7-5.

A penalty against Hong Kong saw Malaysian fly half Mohammad Rahman extend that lead to 10-5 minus later. That score held until the final minutes of the half, despite both teams having plenty of chances to cross the whitewash.

Late in the first half, Hong Kong forced a series of attacking scrums on the Malaysian line. The defence foiled those attacks, but Hong Kong capitalized when the tables were turned and Malaysia had the put in to a defensive scrum beneath their own posts. Hong Kong took the scrum against the head, producing the ball quickly for their backs.

Wing Sam Purvis was the beneficiary, giving Hong Kong its first lead of the game in the 35th minute – 12-10 after Altier’s conversion. Altier slotted home a penalty on the stroke of half-time to send Hong Kong into the break leading 15-10.

After a convincing second half performance last week against South Korea, the crowd expected an easy win for the hosts. But the game stayed scrappy with Malaysia working hard in defence to keep the score at 15-10 for most of the third period.

Malaysian prop Bryan Willfreddoline was sin-binned for infringing at the scrum and the visitors were on the back foot for the entirety of the penalty, ultimately conceding a try to back rower Callum McCullough as Hong Kong pushed their lead to 22-10 after the conversion was wide.

Hooker Mitch Andrews, making his debut, scored a fourth try moments later to secure the crucial bonus point, 27-10.

Malaysia though were not finished, a second try from Saukura closed the gap to 27-17, and minutes later courtesy of a fortunate bounce added a third to further erode the lead to 27-24. A late Jack Neville penalty was the final score of the match, giving Hong Kong a narrow 30-24 win.

“We’re pleased to get the win, first of all,” said coach Andrew Hall after the game, “Credit to Malaysia, they really tested us. They are probably 15 to 20 points better at home, so that gives us some real food for thought this week. But we continued our momentum in the competition, we blooded some new caps, and we tried out some new combinations and gave some players a chance, which are all positives. We need to look at to what extent those combinations worked and to what extent the players took their opportunities.

“You would prefer to have a more comfortable win, but this may actually be best for us. This is probably good to show us that it is damn hard and if you are 1 or 2 per cent off your game these teams will sting you,” Hall added.

Hall credited prop Jack Parfitt, the most capped player on the field for Hong Kong with 28, with a typical steadying presence around the park, picking up significant metres with ball in hand in the loose.

But the veteran was left wanting more from Hong Kong’s performance a week today.

“We weren’t clinical enough today. Fair play to them, they played really well, but I think we bought into their stuff a bit and went off track. We didn’t stick to our game plan or execute the way we can or want to. We will go away and look at our individual performances, and what we can do better as individuals, and work on what went wrong as a team and how we get better from here,” said Parfitt.

Hong Kong and South Korea are now level on the championship table on 10 points with Malaysia earning its first point for a loss within seven.

Hong Kong travel to Kuala Lumpur next week for the return leg.

Hong Kong Squad v Malaysia (HKFC, 15 June):
1. Dan Barlow, 2. Jamie Tsang (Captain), 3. Jack Parfitt, 4. Craig Lodge, 5. Kyle Sullivan, 6. Callum Mccullough, 7. Cris Pierrepont, 8. Kane Boucaut, 9. Bryn Phillips, 10. Paul Altier 11. Sebastien Brien, 12. Ben Axten-Burrett, 13. Lewis Warner, 14. Sam Purvis, 15. Rob Keith,
Reserves: 16. Mitch Andrews, 17. Callum McFeat Smith, 18. Keelan Chapman, 19.Sam Tsoi, 20.James Cunningham, 21. Jamie Lauder, 22.Jack Neville, 23. Tyler Spitz

Additional reporting and images HKRU