PUBLISHED ON 05 JUL 2026
Hong Kong China Rugby (HKCR) lost its opening match at the World Rugby Nations Cup against perennial Rugby World Cup qualifiers Samoa, 66-19, last night at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago, Chile.
It was an historic first meeting between the two union’s men’s XVs although they are frequent competitors at sevens level.
The game was a tale of two halves, with Hong Kong China punished for a poor start to the first half, conceding a try in the opening minute and allowing Samoa the bonus try (four tries) after 20 minutes.
Gifted with too many penalties and unforced errors in the opening half, Samoa ran its score to 26 points to nil before Hong Kong China Rugby were able to get on the board – with scrumhalf Jack Combes forcing a penalty try from a sniping run in the 28th minute that was impeded by a professional foul.
Samoa were shown a yellow card on the play but managed to score twice in short-handed positions to bring the score at half-time to 38-7. Then flyhalf Joe Barker was yellow carded at the end of the half as he was forced to concede the professional foul to halt a Samoan breakaway, leaving Hong Kong China a man down to start the second half.
With other fly-half Matteo Avitabile running at centre against Samoa, Hong Kong China Rugby managed the sinbin masterfully and despite being outnumbered, dominated the start of the second half. Hong Kong were patient in controlling possession and territory in the third quarter as they mounted repeated multi-phase forays into Samoa’s red zone.
The SAR’s danger-men out wide came into their own as they shifted from defence to offence, with wing Marcus Ramage finishing a patient build-up for his team that had taken up over a dozen phases and ate up precious minutes to start the second stanza. Paul Altier’s conversion was successful as Hong Kong China closed the gap to 38-14.
The reserves bench fueled the performance down the half as Hong Kong China visibly grew in confidence down the half. Lachlan Doheny and Isaac Campbell-Wu earned their first caps and had impactful debuts off the bench, as did Hong Kong's leading try-scorer and Premiership Rugby star Matt Worley.
HKCR’s attacks opened gaps in the Samoan defence with sevens star Harry Sayers finishing one off with a hard run through multiple defenders to score Hong Kong’s second try of the half and narrow the gap further to 19-38.
Samoan pride was stung, however, and the highly experienced unit righted the ship down the final quarter, scoring four late tries and preventing Hong Kong from securing the fourth bonus try en route to a 66-19 win.
While it was far from a perfect performance it was a creditable one for HKCR as they managed to hold up intact against the might of one of the world’s premier rugby nations, in what will have been an important dress rehearsal for the team ahead of its debut at theRugby World Cup in 2027.
“I can not say it was a good team performance as we would not be sitting forty points in arrears, but I think everyone had their bright elements. We previewed all week how we wanted to put them under stress and put them into high-stress areas of the game and we did that significantly well at times,” said Asplin.
“I can’t knock our boys on effort. We stayed in the game, showed good foot speed, laid in phase counts and we did punish them off things like the kick and aerial game, which we had focused on for the week.
“Paul Altier backed up his performance against Waikato with a well rounded game and young Max Threlkeld was outstanding - a really mature performance for a twenty one year old. The back line as a whole competed and our wingers competed really well. We had good bench impact from Matt Worley and Lachlan Doheny on his debut - the physicality that he brought off the bench was pretty special,” Asplin added.
"It's a really valuable lesson for us,” said match captain Pierce Mackinlay-West after the match.
“I think we showed in the second half that we can compete at that level. We are probably just not used to coming up against that standard of opposition. So, I think the learning is that we have just got to get to that pace quicker. We gave ourselves too much to do, the way we played in the first half and in the first 20 minutes, falling off tackles. We can take some belief that we can play at that level, but the learning is that it has got to be from the start next time.”
“Looking ahead to next weekend’s competition, Chile, Mackinlay-West said: “We have got to start better. We fell off too many tackles in the first half today. If we fix that up, we show that when we have the ball, we are a really dangerous side and that we can score some points. Just some pretty simple fixes but the test will be next week against Chile. Can we front up and do that?” added the captain.
Hong Kong China will play Chile next week (11 July) in a preview of their pool match at the Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia.
WORLD RUGBY NATIONS CUP 2026 HONG KONG CHINA RUGBY XV vs SAMOA
1.Rory CINNAMOND, 2. Harry BARON, 3. Keelan CHAPMAN, 4. Max MURPHY, 5. Kyle SULLIVAN, 6. Tyler McNUTT, 7. Pierce MACKINLAY-WEST (Captain), 8. James SAWYER 9. Jack COMBES, 10. Joe BARKER, 11. Harry SAYER, 12. Matteo AVATABILE, 13. Max THRELKELD, 14. Marcus RAMAGE, 15. Paul ALTIER, 16. Sunia FAMEITAU, 17. Alexander POST, 18. James HOLMES, 19. Lachlan DOHENY, 20. Dana FOURIE, 21. CHUI Wai Lap, Eric, 23. Isaac CAMPBELL-WU, 22. Matthew WORLEY
Team Management
Manager: Charles CHEUNG
Head Coach: Logan ASPLIN
Head of Technical Rugby: Andrew DOUGLAS
Coaches: Lewis WILSON; Kane HAMES; Marno MEYER
S&C Coaches: Liam McSTAY; Madison HUNTING
Physiotherapists: Henry ELLIOTT; Stephen MUTCH
Analyst: Andy YUEN
