The Hong Kong U19s men’s national team beat Sri Lanka 37-8 this afternoon in Colombo to claim a first win in the home and away Asia Rugby U19s championship. The winner of the championship will receive an automatic entry to next year’s World Rugby U20 Trophy.

Hong Kong are on track for a fifth straight Asian U19s title after a convincing seven-try display in Sri Lanka, with winger Marcus Ramage accounting for a hat-trick at the Race Track grounds.

Hong Kong led 20-3 at the half after Ramage opened the scoring early on with fly-half Paul Altier’s conversion bringing the early lead to 7-0.Sri Lanka replied through a penalty from fly-half Chaturanga Senivarathne in what was their only scoring of the first half.

With ten minutes remaining in the half, flanker Gregor Ramage was shown a yellow card for a late tackle,in what looked to be an opportunity for the hosts to close the deficit. But Senivarathne’s conversion attempt was wide and it was Hong Kong instead who exploded for three more tries to close out the half.

Centre Alex Nisbet finished off a clinical piece of attack, set up by Altier’s cleverly chosen running line and well-timed draw pass that created an overlap in the Sri Lankan back three.

Moments later, Ramage collected his second try with a great individual effort as he jinked several defendersoverthe last ten metres to find the line.

Ramage’s wing partner Chong Shun-hong also got in on the action before half-time, showing some quick heels to finish a 20-metre dash for the line as the demoralized Sri Lankan defence crumbled.

Altier missed all three conversions in the only blot on his copybookthis afternoon, as he went just one for seven on his conversions and failed to consistently find the mark with his kicks from hand, but Hong Kong were comfortably ahead 22-3 at the break.

The big lead seeped some of the discipline from Hong Kong’s attack in the second half and the Sri Lankans quickly capitalized on the visitors’ lack of structure, scoring almost immediately after the re-start to narrow the gap to 22-8.But their efforts to claw back into the game were derailed in the 43rd minute when No. 8 Gihan Perera was shown a yellow card.

Hong Kong opted for the scrum from the ensuing penalty and dropped flanker Gregor Ramage into the backline to equal the pack numbers as per U19s rules. Hong Kong quickly produced the ball and Altier sent a wide pass to Ramage, who caught it in stride and outmuscled the defence to score, pushing the lead to 27-8 after another missed conversion from Altier.

Marcus Ramage collected his hat trick on a gift try, started by co-captain Max Denmark when the rangy No. 8 slipped a tackle to find himself inthirty metres of space in the middle of the Sri Lanka defence. Denmark was felled at the Sri Lanka 22-metre line but the ball was quickly recycled and chipped ahead for Ramage, who outpaced the defence to touch down in the far corner, extending thelead to 32-8.

Prop Jay Cooke finished the scoring after showing good quickness to touch down the ball after a Sri Lankan tap from the lineout went awry bringing the final score to 37-8.

In all it was a comfortable but not flawless performance for Hong Kong, leaving coach Stephen Dowse expecting more in Saturday’s re-match.

“We’re happy to get the win but also frustrated that we left quite a few points on the park, which I guess is a good statement of where this group is at now. When we stuck to our processes and stuck to task we looked good and that is our challenge for the second game.

“Today showed that our systems are right and that when we stick to them they can’t handle it very well. We need a bit more discipline, as a team and as individuals. Sometimes when you get a few tries on the board you get a bit individual and go off-script, that’s the rugby that Sri Lanka thrives on,” said Dowse.

The action will return to Hong Kong for the finale at Hong Kong Football Club next Saturday (18.00).

“It’s really just half-time for us now. We have two games in a similar timeframe as that at the World Trophy and other major tournaments so that will be a good experience for the guys to go through.Hopefully we will have a big crowd out to support the guys next week at Football Club and if we can stick to our structures then I expect us to lift our performance even more,” added Dowse.