The Hong Kong U19s men’s national team won their fourth successive Asia Rugby U19s championship today, beating Malaysia 67-10 at the UPM Sports Centre in Kuala Lumpur. Hong Kong beat Chinese Taipei, 54-8, and Sri Lanka, 61-0, before today’s nine-try demolition of Malaysia, as they cruised through the regional age grade championship for a fourth time on the trot.

The win sends Hong Kong to the 2017 World Rugby Junior Trophy in Uruguay. The eight-team competition will include two Asian entrants for the first time since 2014 when Japan won the tournament, which was hosted in Hong Kong. Japan were relegated from the World Rugby U20 Championship this year. Namibia and Chile have also qualified for the tournament in Montevideo next August.

As they have done throughout the tournament, Hong Kong asserted their superiority from start to finish, playing nearly the entirety of the first half in Malaysian territory. If not for the horrendous conditions early on, with heavy rain turning the pitch into a morass and the game halted due to lightning, Hong Kong would have likely posted an even larger margin, as their repeated line breaks were foiled more by the poor footing than the Malaysian defence.

In defiance of the weather gods, Hong Kong was not afraid to throw the ball around, something that is learned behavior according to coach Peter Drewett:

“There is a high degree of skill in the team and we made a plan to play with freedom and responsibility. You have to do the hard work of going forward and getting momentum, but once we have it, we want to see all of the players, no matter their jersey numbers, showing the ability to offload, support and evade.

“The number on your shirt is largely irrelevant in the modern game outside of the set piece. The players job is to explore their potential and our job as coaches is to help them uncover it,” Drewett added.

The forwards provided another ideal platform as they capitalized on the conditions, doing everything that was asked of them in the opening stages as they put paid to any Malaysian attack with turnover-generating tackles.

Flanker Gregor Ramage stood out in another impressive team-wide performance, opening the scoring in both halves with tries, and coming inches away from completing the hat-trick late in the game. The tries were just reward for an impressive work-rate that saw him named man of the match.

Racing 92 prospect Matt Worley added three first half penalties, before Kyle Kitney crossed over for Hong Kong’s second try. Worley added the extras and converted a fourth penalty in the half to bring the score to 24-3 at the break.

The second half started similarly to the first as Hong Kong immediately marched into Malaysian territory with Ramage capping off a solid driving ruck by, diving over from in close for his second try.

The improved footing in the second half allowed Hong Kong to up its attacking intensity, and they blew the Malaysian defence away with six more second half tries after Ramage broke the seal. Centre James Karton added a brace, as did reserve back Daniel Pusack who scored two tries in quick succession on almost his first two touches of the game.

The Malaysian defence wilted under the onslaught and Hong Kong turned line breaks into twenty and thirty-metre gains with regularity over the last quarter. No.8 Max Denmark showed an impressive blend of size, speed and silky handling to create late tries for forward Jack Scanlon and fly-half Cameron Smith as Hong Kong ran up the score to 67-10 before the finish.

Karton converted the final try as time expired, leaving Worley with four penalties and four conversions from today’s outing and bringing his points haul to 60 across three matches.

Ahead of the tournament Drewett was particularly interested to see how Worley had benefited from another year in the Racing 92 set-up and he was impressed with the early returns: “Matt sustained a very high level of performance across three games and in very different circumstances this week and that highlights a player that has made tremendous progress both physically and in his skill development over the past 12 months.”

Drewett was upbeat about defending Hong Kong’s title with a side laden with 17-year olds and just six returning players from last year’s competition.

“It’s been an outstanding week for the players. If we look at where they started and finished, it's been a great success in terms of player development.

“The team showed a lot of maturity. Conditions prevented us from playing the tempo game we were after and the players had to work that out for themselves. They had to trust that if they kept doing what they were doing it would come right and we’d break them down and eventually we did,” Drewett added.

“This is my third season at this level and their has been some good talent coming through, so much so that a number of young players are now getting senior caps and standing out in Premiership rugby. So it’s really exciting to see the 17 year olds come in and perform well.

“If you add that to the large number of recent graduates capped in the last year it’s even more exciting. If these players can stay in Hong Kong and stay together for the next 10 years then the future looks very good,” Drewett added.

While competitions like the Asian championship are essential for the HKRU’s player-centred, development-focused and competition-driven National Age Grade programme, it is the World Rugby Junior Trophy that will help Drewett and the coaches identify the cream of the crop.

“Playing in the Junior Trophy over the past few years has played a huge part in seasoning players. Being able to compete at a higher level shows them what is required in terms of high performance behaviour, managing themselves on and off pitch and the strength and conditioning commitments required to be senior internationals.

“As coaches we are in a much better position to assess after we have taken teams to the Junior Trophy. The intensity of that competition gives us a better idea of how players react to that pressure and on the back of that competition we are in a better position to make recommendations about which players could advance to Leigh Jones’ Elite Rugby Programme and hopefully on to senior caps,” Drewett added.

“These tournaments are part of the jigsaw that helps us to create a smooth pathway for players to advance along - if they are prepared to work hard and take their opportunities,” Drewett concluded.

Chinese Taipei finished as the runners-up, while Sri Lanka, who had an intense build-up to the competition and were widely tipped as the top contenders, struggled to a third place finish but at least retained their spot in the top flight for next year. Malaysia, the surprise package of the week, fell short in their bid to remain in the elite level and will be relegated to Division I next season.

Hong Kong Squad for the Asia Rugby U19s Championship (Kuala Lumpur, Dec 11 – 17):

Mark COEBERGH (Captain, HK Scottish), Jake BARLOW (Discovery Bay Pirates), William BEATTIE (Valley), Mikkel CHRISTENSEN (DB Pirates), Max DENMARK (HKFC), Oliver DUFFY (Valley), Ken ENCARNACION (HK Scottish/Gai Wu), Hugo FERNSTROM (HKFC), Thomas GIBB (HKCC), Liam HERBERT (Valley), Takamasa HOSHIYAMA (DB Pirates/Auckland Uni.), Gareth HUI Sin-hang (USRC Tigers), James KARTON (USRC Tigers), Kyle KITNEY (USRC Tigers/Newcastle Falcons), Lachlan OLIVER-KERBY* (DB Pirates/HK Scottish), Oliver OVERMAN (USRC Tigers), Sebastian PASHA (Valley), Daniel PUSACK (Valley/Santa Clara Rugby), Marcus RAMAGE (HK Scottish), Gregor RAMAGE (HK Scottish), Austin ROBERTSHAW (HK Scottish), Jack SCANLON (HKFC), Cameron SMITH (HKFC), Matt WORLEY (HKFC/Racing 92), Matthew WYATT (HKCC).