[Hong Kong, 21 July 2022]:  The Hong Kong China men’s U20s rugby team pushed Samoa to the limit at the World Rugby U20 Trophy in Kenya before losing 30-27.  The winner of the eight-team tournament will be promoted to the World Rugby U20 Championship in 2024.

With six changes made in the starting 15 after a disappointing opening loss to Spain, Hong Kong China rebounded with a superb display against the much favoured Samoans, who beat Kenya 34-25 earlier.

“Post-game against Spain to now, the growth in our group has been massive,” said Hong Kong China U20s coach Logan Asplin.

“The performance and the execution of the game plan today was spot on; it was just a few moments and decisions in the late game that didn’t go our way. Our first half was awesome. Our ball control and kick pressure was excellent and our set piece was working efficiently. We did enough right throughout to win it, but credit to Samoa, they are a momentum team and those last 10 minutes were massive and hard to stop. 

“We had some opportunities where we could have really put them to the sword. Our players will be disappointed because we had a chance to tip over a big rugby nation today, but gained so much out of this experience,” he added.

A try for Samoa after just nine minutes - set up by the nuanced kicking of fly half Afa Moleli, whose chip ahead put Maoaluma Pasa clear for a footrace with the defence - seemed to spell trouble for Hong Kong China but it would be the last lead Samoa would enjoy until the 75^th minute. 

Fullback Dylan McCann levelled the scores in the 15^th minute, strolling over the line with two men outside of him to score Hong Kong China’s first points of their World Rugby U20 Trophy campaign.  McCann extended the lead to 8-5 three minutes later after Samoa were pinged for not releasing the ball in the tackle, a testament to Hong Kong’s relentless defence in the game.

Samoa became increasingly frustrated as the half wore on. Indiscipline plagued their game for a second consecutive match after conceding four yellow cards in their opener against Kenya.  Hooker Alex Lui was sent off in the 36^th minute for collapsing a driving maul on the Samoan try-line, but Hong Kong China could not extend the lead before half-time.

It was a disastrous start to the second half for Samoa as they were handed a second yellow card at the re-start when they tackled flanker Fritz Mahn with the ball in the air. With Lui still in the sin bin, Hong Kong China would start the second half with a two-man advantage. 

At the first scrum after the second yellow card, Samoa could no longer field a full front row and the game was subject to uncontested scrums for a short period. That meant that Samoa had to drop to 12 players giving Hong Kong China a three-man overlap to start the second half.

They made short work of the advantage, finding winger Joe Denmark out wide with space. Denmark finished off a two-on-one attack with a 50-metre sprint to the line for the team’s second try, extending the lead to 15-5 after McCann’s conversion. 

Samoa soon returned to 14 men and generated their first positive attacks since the first half, earning a penalty for offsides. Moleli’s attempt was good and Samoa cut Hong Kong China’s lead to within a converted try at 15-8.  Samoa provided that try just one minute later with centre Christopher Afamasaga finishing off another attack set up by man of the match Moleli, whose conversion levelled the scores at 15-all with 30 minutes left.  Samoan back Paul Stanley was shown a straight red card after foul play at the re-start giving Hong Kong China another look-in with Samoa down to 14 for the rest of the match.

Asplin turned to his bench at the same time to further stress test Samoa.  Hong Kong China kicked deep to touch for the driving lineout, setting up another series of driving mauls with reserve hooker Takuma Yamauchi finishing the second attack to push Hong Kong China back into the lead at 22-15 after a second conversion from McCann.

In the last ten minutes, Samoa dug deep and relied on its impressive forward pack to test a tiring Hong Kong China defence.  Samoa looked to have scored in the 70^th minute after a clever put in to the front of the lineout found massive space in the defence, but they were pinged for double movement at the try line and Hong Kong China regained possession.

Samoa brought the attack back to Hong Kong’s line quickly with Moleli again orchestrating.  A series of tap and go penalties by the Samoan pack added pressure on the defence and after several attacking phases captain John Samuelu came up with a well-deserved try to level the score at 22-all with Moleli making the conversion.

Minutes later Moleli did it again with a drop goal from near halfway splitting the uprights to give Samoa their first lead since the ninth minute as they edged ahead 25-22.  Moleli took charge of the match from there on out, poking another great touch finder deep to bring Samoa back into attacking range. The pack took the job on from there, driving over for a late try to Robert Robinson to make the score 30-22.

Hong Kong China produced a reply in the 80^th minute through Max Threlkeld, after Samoa were penalized for throwing the ball into touch on purpose. Two quick tap and goes brought the ball to the line before Threlkeld found the gap for the final try to push the score to 30-27 before time elapsed.

World Rugby U20 Trophy Match I: Hong Kong China versus Samoa (20 July)

1. Sam MARTIN, 2. Jude HARDING, 3. Billy RIGBY, 4. Ciaran DELANEY, 5. GLENN HUI, 6. Fritz MAHN, 7. Marco CONTI, 8. Tyler MCNUTT (Captain), 9. Adam BABER, 10. Julian BOURRON, 11. Josh EUSTACE, 12. Oliver PYLE, 13, Max THRELKELD, 14. Joe DENMARK, 15. Dylan MCCANN, 16. Takuma YAMAUCHI, 17. Izaac MANU, 18. David BENNETT, 19 Callum FITZHENRY, 20. Theo MAG, 21. Camill CHEUNG, 22. Jamie BLAIR, 23. Joe DENMARK.