HKRU MEN’S U20S POWER TO CUP FINAL OF ASIA RUGBY U20S SEVENS IN HONG KONG

12th Aug 2016

Hong Kong’s Men’s U20s Sevens squad tore through Pool B on day one of the final tournament of the 2016 Asia Rugby U20s Sevens Series today at King’s Park in Hong Kong.

The hosts notched a perfect three wins from three matches to advance to tomorrow’s Cup semi finals against Malaysia (14:28) after being routed to the plate in the opening leg of the Series in July.

U20s Sevens Coach Fan Shun-kei’s decision to call upon some specialist sevens experience ahead of the series finale paid off as Hong Kong posted 109 points while conceding just 10 on day one – making an emphatic statement that the defending champions won’t be pushed around at home.

After falling to the plate competition in the opening leg, Fan called up three members of the Hong Kong schoolboys sevens side that won the Hong Kong Schools Sports Federation’s Asian Rugby Sevens championship earlier this summer in Mark Coebergh, James Karton and Liam Herbert. Fan also added some physicality to the squad in the form of Junior World Trophy veteran Alessandro Nardoni.

All four players figured prominently in today’s action as Hong Kong recorded convincing 36-5 and 40-5 wins over its opening pool opponents Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, setting up a climactic final pool match against South Korea - who had unceremoniously handed the U20s their first Asian sevens defeat in over a year in Malaysia.

This time Hong Kong turned the tables on the Koreans with a resounding 33-0 victory that saw the hosts jump out to a 26-0 lead at the break. Hong Kong dominated from the outset with Archer collecting a first-half brace, including the crucial opening try. Nardoni and Coebergh added first half tries before Chen Po-Yuan collected Hong Kong’s fifth try - his second of the day, after the break. Captain Hugo Stiles posted four conversions to cap the scoring.

“We really improved since the opening tournament, especially in our team performance. We cut out the individual errors, which were hurting us a lot and improved game by game today.

“The boys are much more comfortable in their sevens now and their understanding of each other has really improved. I think that is the reason we were able to beat Korea by such a large score. We are gelling as a side. We knew we needed to beat Korea to top the pool and we played our best match of the Series so far against them,” Fan added.

Hong Kong was paced today by four tries from Daniel Archer, (one of two veterans of last year’s Series winning team along with Cameron Smith), who scored braces in the opening match against Singapore and in the final pool game against South Korea. Smith added two tries this afternoon as did Nardoni, while Coebergh contributed a try and four conversions from his opening outings.

Hong Kong will now play Malaysia in the Cup semi-final tomorrow. “It is going to be a tough semi final. Malaysia have performed very well so far across the Series. They are quick and highly organised. We will need to keep up our level of performance and look to use our physicality as the difference maker,” Fan said as he looked ahead to the Semi final.

The Malaysians finished second in Pool A behind Series leaders Sri Lanka, who also finished day one without a loss and have looked like the sharpest team throughout the Series. South Korea finished second in Pool B to set up a re-match against Sri Lanka in tomorrow’s other cup semi.

Archer’s four tries have him one off the pace of try leader Mohd. Jaifree of Malaysia. Stiles is tied for top most conversions with Sri Lankan threat Thuwan Raffaideen who paired eight conversions with four tries to lead all scorers on 36 points.

The final leg of the Women’s U20s Series will see Hong Kong play Thailand in a three-match round-robin competition tomorrow. Hong Kong, runners-up to Thailand in the cup final in Malaysia need to win all three matches to claim their first Asian Sevens Series title.

AR U20 Women’s Sevens Series Match Schedule:

Saturday 13 August

13:00 Hong Kong v Thailand

14:50 Hong Kong v Thailand

16:36 Hong Kong v Thailand

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