Hong Kong China Secure Fifth Consecutive Asia Rugby Men’s Championship With Convincing Win Over Korea.

On Saturday 22 June, on a scorching hot and humid afternoon, Hong Kong China Men secured another bonus point win and an eighth win on the trot to lift their fifth straight Asia Rugby Men’s Championship at the Hong Kong Football Club.

The win means Hong Kong China will remain 24th in the World Rugby rankings and Head Coach Andrew Douglas said after the match, “You have to be proud of that effort, especially in the first half where we put them under a lot of pressure. We knew that if we could get them down early it would be hard for them to get out of that hole, especially in these warm conditions.”

HKCR eight-man Luke Van Der Smit scored a hat trick and commented, “I am happy with that. We can always be better but I am proud of the boys as we stuck it out at times when we were a man down. I'm happy with my own performance too but there are always a couple of things to work on.

Korea suffered a surprise loss to the UAE in the second round and has played this championship with an inexperienced side - only four in the team faced Hong Kong China this time last year.

Match and ARC Title Wrapped Up In First Half

Hong Kong China started the game better than they had the last two fixtures and employed lots of short passes and carries in defence and attack which tired the Korean tacklers in the energy-sapping heat.

Luke Van Der Smit was again a powerhouse and carried well all game, as well as having his hand in several tries. An early break and an offload to big centre Thomas Hill saw him bustle over and stretch for the opening score within four minutes to make it 7-0.

A first scrum in the eighth minute showed the dominance early Hong Kong China Men would have in this contest and they won several scrum penalties in the game.

Douglas had admitted that the game plan was to start well early and put the visitors under pressure “and force them to make some tough decisions and I think we accomplished that.”

A near runaway Korean intercept was called back as there was an advantage in Hong Kong China’s favour and they opted for the posts with Paul Altier slotting the kick to make it 10-0 after ten minutes.

Some handling errors did leave points out there but in the 14th minute, another penalty option extended the lead to 13-0. With the hot conditions, each half saw additional water breaks and the Koreans had their first chance at points around the 20-minute mark but the penalty was pushed wide.

Hong Kong China was controlling the game and playing it at their desired pace while the Koreans tried to find space behind the home defence with short chip kicks which rarely proved effective.

In the 23rd minute, Van Der Smit scored following a great passage of short passes and pressure from the hosts which opened up the defence for the number 8 with Altier adding the extras for a score of 20-0.

A third try was added shortly after as the 10-15 combination worked wonderfully well as Matteo Avitabile chipped for Altier to collect and score (the pair played at school and age grade rugby) for a 27-0 lead.

Before the halftime break, Harry Sayers dotted down for a final score down the left-hand side with the fifth try and a successful Altier conversion to make it 34-0.

Dominant Display In Team Effort

The second half saw a slower start but it was still dominated by Hong Kong China. In addition to more clinical starts, the side has shown an unrelenting streak of ruthlessness across all three games.

In the 48th minute, Thomas Hill made a great break and good hands out wide to Sayers and the ball popped back inside for Avitabile to cross over and a 39-0 unconverted score.

Shortly after, Korea made a great break on the left after the wing beat a couple of defenders and chipped through with the TMO deciding the player was illegally obstructed by Avitabile who was sent off with a yellow card and the visitors were rewarded with a penalty try, 39-7.

Despite being a player down, captain Joshua Hrstich drove over close from the line and scored a powerful score with Altier converting 46-7. Two quickfire back-to-back tries for Van Der Smit saw him complete a hat trick in the final third of the game to extend the lead to 60-7.

The final score saw youngster Tyler McNutt collect a chip through from Gregor McNeish for a score of 67-7 in what was an impressive and dominant performance from the champions.

Of the impact off the bench, Douglas added, “We knew we had a strong bench and the way we were going to work things around the 45-minute mark in these conditions and I thought that bench certainly made an impact when they came on. Every player in the group accomplished something and contributed today.

Of the young players coming through, the coach added, “He (Matteo) is only 21 years old and made his debut in this Championship, and Camill Cheung is 19, and Tyler McNutt is 21. Those guys are making a stand here and it is great to see the young talent coming through.”

The three successive bonus-point victories in the ARMC 2024 have seen the side score over 180 points and debut caps as they build towards the future. Hong Kong China has won the Asia Rugby Men’s Championship five times in a row (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 & 2024).

South America Awaits

Hong Kong China Men will be training this coming week before heading to Santiago, Chile next Sunday with a three-week tour in South America and face tough test matches against Chile, Paraguay and Brazil.

“It’s going to be much more physical over there and we have done all we can do and played what is in front of us in this Championship", said Douglas. He is excited for the challenge and the forwards will be a key part of the tour.”

One of those, Luke Van Der Smit, added “I missed the Malaysia game which I was a little upset about to be honest, but I trust the coach’s judgement and it’s all about the big picture with this ARMC final and the South America tour. I am excited about the tour, we have a great platform to work from and we can assess where we are against some of these other teams.”

This article was posted in collaboration with our good friends at RugbyAsia247 – check them out for all the latest Asia Rugby news!