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The 31-7 scoreline belies what was a pulsating contest as Hong Kong’s ladies applied the tough lessons of the pool stages to good effect with their best performance so far, and if we want to be hyper critical they could and should have got something from the game.
The difference was experience. Hong Kong had 61% of the territory and possession but could not crack a solid defence, while Spain were able to turn Hong Kong’s few miscues into points, scoring five tries, several against the run of play.
Spain set up a second meeting with Italy in the ninth place play-off after battling past a Hong Kong side that kept them on their toes for the full 80 minutes. Las Leonas, ranked 15 places above Hong Kong in the World Rugby Women’s Rankings, went into the match as strong favourites and nearly opened the scoring in the fifth minute when centre Marina Bravo was held up over the line. They didn’t have long to wait, though, as from the resulting scrum number eight Angela del Pan controlled the ball at the base of the scrum and dived over the line.
The rain began to fall at Queen’s University and both sides found it hard to keep control of a damp ball, but that didn’t stop them throwing it around and trying to attack from anywhere. Hong Kong missed an opportunity to get on the scoreboard when centre Adrienne Garvey, the scorer of their first World Cup points against Wales last week, saw her penalty come back off the post.
Spain doubled their lead just before the half-hour mark when captain Isabel Rico profited from some quick ball, the prop handing off one defender to race clear and dot down.
Hong Kong, though, fought back with fly-half Rose Hopewell-Fong picking the ball up off her shoelaces and juggling it before she spun out of a tackle and sprinted away under the posts to the delight of her team-mates.
Spain’s ability to turn defence into attack so quickly was highlighted by their fourth try just before the hour, winger Iera Echebarria receiving the ball on her own 22, stepping inside and out as she left the defence behind to touch down. Las Leonas were ruled held up in the 74th minute, but did fashion another try, Echebarria stopped just short but looping a pass up which replacement Carlota Meliz gratefully grabbed to put the gloss on a second win for Spain at Ireland 2017.
“We expected them to come out fast and they did,” said Hull, the only female head coach at the World Cup. We held them off quite well from the start and I’m proud of the girls. That game shows how much we have improved over the World Cup. We’ve now shown we can close the gap on teams like that, compared to what we were doing against them even a few months ago.” Hong Kong lost 41-18 to Spain in June.
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For the first time Hong Kong controlled significant periods of the match, racking up multiple phases against a resolute Spanish defence that made 201 tackles on the day. Hong Kong though could not penetrate the final line of defence and the breakneck pace of the match and physical effort took its toll in the later stages.
“We were competitive for 50 or 60 minutes, but once they got their momentum up it was quite difficult to score and they did well to take advantage of our mistakes,” said Hull. “At half-time there was one try in it, despite the fact that we didn’t manage the contact area as well as we wanted to. Even with a lot of possession we couldn’t generate much momentum in the first half.”
“But we made them defend. There were plenty of times that if we would have just gotten that final pass away we would have been under the posts. The girls made them play and forced them into a type of game that wasn’t to their liking and that took a lot of bravery to go out and make those tackles and continue to reload,” Hull added.
The momentum built from an aggressive defensive effort punctuated by a succession of Hong Kong danger women, Chong Ka-yan, Rose Hopewell-Fong and Adrienne Garvey, intercepting passes early on, unsettling the Spanish attack.
Hong Kong flustered the Spanish, whose raised tempers led to raised tackles. Spain conceded 10 penalties in the first half while a composed Hong Kong gave up only two, both late in the second half.
The day’s result set up a tantalizing finale for a Hong Kong side that has won hearts and minds in Ireland against rivals Japan with both teams in search of a first Rugby World Cup win.
“We will take a lot of confidence from this game. That is very telling now for us in our last game, said Hull. “Now we have a chance to really challenge Japan and go into that game with some belief. They put a heavy score on us before the World Cup and this will be another opportunity, like Spain, to benchmark our progress and to continue to close that gap.”
Spain centre Marina Bravo: “It was a really tough match that we played and we are here in the World Cup to enjoy it. They were really strong but in the second half we showed our rugby and I think we did it well. We are really enjoying our rugby. We are really happy, we want to continue playing rugby and showing our rugby and also to learn because Spain came here to learn and improve our rugby and to show the world we play rugby and we enjoy it.”
Hong Kong captain Chow Mei Nam: “It’s the first time for us to be on this world stage and we have had really tough opponents, but we have really enjoyed it. We are showing improvements, however the result is not what we want, but we have many more improvements to come. We put our bodies on the line and we made it hard for them to score a try.”
Additional reporting and images: HKrugby