HKCR U20 FINISH 8TH AT WORLD RUGBY U20 CHALLENGER CUP
PUBLISHED ON 20 OCT 2026
[Hong Kong, 20 October 2026]: Hong Kong China Rugby Men’s U20s XV finished in eighth place at the World Rugby U20 Challenger Cup in Chile after losing in the play-off to Namibia, 53-5.
With arguably its strongest side of the tournament taking to the pitch HKCR were intent on throwing it all into the wind as they hunted for their first win of the Challenger Cup, but it was not to be as Namibia found another gear in the second half to push past Hong Kong.
The first 40 minutes was a flowing affair with both sides playing most of the rugby between the 22-metre lines as they settled into the game.
Namibia showed an early advantage over Hong Kong in the scrum, which they would wield to good effect in the match, unsurprisingly for a rugby nation that shares much DNA with South Africa.
At the end of the first half, Namibia had already won 5 scrums to a single successful pack down for Hong Kong. However, Namibia squandered that advantage with some sloppy indiscipline as they also conceded five penalties to Hong Kong’s one in the first 20 minutes. Hong Kong used those opportunities to try to set up driving maul tries but neither team’s lineout was functioning well in the first half with most put ins to the line going long.
Midway through the opening quarter Namibia converted a kickable penalty against Hong Kong to take a 3-0 lead.
A yellow card against Gabe Horberry at the half-hour marker created space for Namibia to pile on two tries before half-time – the latter coming seconds before Horberry’s return to the pitch, as they built a 17-0 lead.
Lock Fritz Mahn, one of the standouts for Hong Kong on tour, scored a driving maul try from the lineout soon after the restart to close the gap to 17-5 but two more tries in rapid succession from captain Jano Erasmus and Connor Nel blew the score open at 31-5 heading into the final quarter.
Namibia added more tries in the dying minutes to get their first win of the U20 Challenger Cup 2026.
The loss was a last measure of disappointment for the HKCR U20 who were competitive in every match, but could not string together performances across 80 minutes, and struggled when trailing. Captain and No.8 Kai Tiltman, who played almost every minute of the tour, summed up the positives post-match.
“Obviously, we are really disappointed. We wanted to finish off with a win, but we didn't perform today. Congratulations to Namibia, they'll enjoy the win. That's what we were aiming for, but, it's also an incredible opportunity for us boys coming out to Chile, playing against some great teams, and we have just got to learn from this, and hopefully in the future come back stronger.
“We’re all really grateful for all of the support we received from back home. We heard it all from back home this tour and we’re disappointed we couldn’t get the result for everyone, but a big thanks to all of our supporters, we are really grateful,” said Tiltman.
