PUBLISHED ON 18 DEC 2024
The Hong Kong China U19s got the Asia Rugby Men’s U19 Championship 2024 off to a winning start at the Taipei Municipal Stadium on Wednesday 18 December by beating Korea 39-14.
The result means they secure a spot in the final at the same venue which will be played on Sunday 22 December versus Japan, who beat Chinese Taipei 100-5.
Our team are serial defending champions of the U19 Championship but over recent years Japan have not been involved. Last year we played Korea, and HKCR managed to score 60+ points in a win but this was a much improved Korean side.
Head Coach Joe Barker said, “First task completed and it was a scrappy one but it was the first hit out together for these boys. Credit to them for grinding it out but we know there are some corrections we will need to make in the final.”
Of the defence from the HKCR side, which they had to do a lot of in the second half, Barker and the coaching group thought the effort was very good. “Structurally we were great and our centres and Oliver Clark were very good.”
Centre James Kee, who was part of the U20 Trophy squad mid-year and had an excellent game, added, “I was very happy with our defence as the boys kept on working and turned that into pressure to force mistakes. For the final, we will need to improve our ball retention and execution in attack - those would be the key areas to work on”.
Hong Kong China Start & End Match Strong
Hong Kong China started the match very well to put the Koreans under early pressure from the kick-off and dominated the first scrum.
From the first lineout, we stole the ball and moved it wide quickly where left-wing Sam Nicolle scored the first of his three tries in the game (he and David McMurtray swapped jerseys before the KO) with fullback Matthew Rickard nailing the conversion for a 7-0 lead.
The opening twenty minutes saw a good kicking game which put the Korean last line of defenders under pressure but both sides were guilty of handling errors.
Matthew Rickard opted for posts with a penalty to extend the lead 10-0 and Sam Nicolle got his second try after about 20 minutes into the 35-minute half (the U19s play 70-minute matches) after a period of some scrappy play from both sides to extend the lead with another converted try from Rickard for a 17-0 lead. Things looked comfortable.
Korea were starting to win the contest at the rucks with several penalties from turnovers and with 5 minutes left in the half, Hong Kong China were forced to defend successive waves of attacks on their line but Korea eventually got over to score their first points to make it 17-7.
Korea continued to win successive turnovers at rucks which resulted in a team warning from the match referee to captain Oliver Clarke. After the halftime hooter, Korea sniped from a ruck and found a hole in our defence to narrow the lead to 17-14 at the break.
With much of the opening 20 minutes of the game played in Korean territory, Hong Kong China struggled to get out our own half in the second period. Fortunately, neither side managed to make any inroads on the scoreboard.
The Korean line speed caused some rushed passes from HKCR and they capitalised from a hasty kick through which they just didn't convert into points.
Finally, an excellent break by fullback Rickard, who released left wing Sam Nicolle to benefit and grab his hatrick, gave Hong Kong China some breathing space on the scoreboard 24-14.
Centre James Kee put in some monster hits to bundle Korean attackers into touch on either flank of the field which lifted spirits with less than ten minutes to go.
HKCR were still playing most of the half in defence and camped in their own half but a well-won turnover saw Rickard slot another one between the posts for his 5th successful kick and a 27-14 lead.
This was followed by prop Ian Wong scoring a breakaway try - a loosehead prop in full flight is a beautiful thing and the lead extended to 34-14 before centre #12 Oliver Sinclair was just stopped short of scoring but replacement prop #17 Yat Fu Davy Chiu was the beneficiary to secure a 39-14 win.
Coaches Thoughts
Of the Koreans, Barker said they were more aggressive than they expected. “We had done a fair amount of work on our ball carrying and aspects around that but under pressure in the match, it was not executed as well as we would like. It did improve as the match went on.”
He added that the kicking game was part of the strategy as they identified the opposition had put players up to disrupt their carries, so the kicks moved them around, saying “When we did it right, it worked, and we managed to build some pressure.”
Rickard was excellent throughout the game and Joe Barker added of his performance, “He is a talent and that is why he had already been in camp with the Senior Men’s side, and you can see he definitely has something about him and today he shined.”
He also commented on the Sam Nicolle hatrick “He is hard to put down and there was some good teamwork to help him to his tries but credit to Sam who is new to this environment. We found him and his brother and he has done really well and deserved the tries as he had to go back to Australia for exams and came back for this tournament.”
This article was posted in collaboration with our good friends at RugbyAsia247 – check them out for all the latest Asian Rugby news!
