Hong Kong beat Chile 13-6 in last night’s 2017 Regal Hotels Cup of Nations action. Russia beat Kenya 31-10 in the curtain raiser to maintain their stranglehold on the top spot after a narrow 16-13 opening win over Hong Kong last Friday.

It was touch and go for the hosts throughout an especially tight encounter, despite Hong Kong nullifying Chile’s strength in the forwards, particularly in the first half, when the hosts forced Chile into conceding numerous penalties at the coalface.

Despite the gains in the set piece, most of the opening stages were played in Hong Kong’s half as Chile attacked with abandon while the hosts struggled to turn possession into territorial advantage.

“It was always going to be a tough game,” said Hong Kong coach Leigh Jones after the match.

“I think the lads are a little disappointed with the performance, but Chile are well drilled. I’ve been using that word nuggety all week to describe them and they proved tough to break down tonight. We were a little naïve at times and played too much of the game in the middle third when we just needed to get territory,” Jones added.

Hong Kong’s consistent performance at the scrum generated their first real advantage when Chile prop Claudio Zamorano was sent off in the 36^th minute after repeated penalties in the scrum. Hong Kong marched the ball up field, taking advantage of the space and opportunity presented by Zamorano’s sin binning to post the first points in the 39^th minute when flanker Matt Lamming finished off a frenetic series of attacks on Chile’s line by plunging over from in close.

Fly half Jack Neville’s conversion was true and Hong Kong took a 7-0 lead into the break with four minutes of the sin-bin still to come at the start the second half; that advantage would prove short-lived as Hong Kong prop Jack Parfitt was sent to the bin shortly after the re-start.

Fullback Tomas Ianiszewski struck the ensuing penalty from 40 metres to close the gap to 7-3 with Chile looking poised to reclaim the momentum. A tenacious defensive effort from the hosts managed to hold them off the board for the remainder of Parfitt’s sin bin and both sides returned to equal strength without impacting the score line.

Soon after, Hong Kong were gifted a fortunate penalty opportunity after Lamming was incidentally taken in the air after trying to outleap the Chilean defence. Neville’s second attempt was equal to his first as Hong Kong extended their lead to 10-3.

Both sides started to ring the changes with twenty minutes remaining and the game lost shape for periods of the second half, with Hong Kong in particular falling off its structure in an effort to press home their advantage. After long periods of back and forth action, Ianiszewski collected his second penalty in the 60^th minute to close the gap to within a try at 10-6.

Ultimately, Hong Kong’s subs made the greater impact as they carried the message to improve territorial position onto the field. Reserve fly half Matt Rosslee’s solid kicking from hand helped turn the Chilean attack on repeated occasions.

As Hong Kong’s reserves continued to heat up, Chile’s frustrations mounted and unforced errors crept into their play, particularly at the lineout, which had several misfires in the last quarter.

Rosslee added a late penalty in the 69^th minute to bring the final score to 13-6 with a 77^th minute sin-binning for reserve forward Bastian Burgener further preventing Chile from closing the gap.

Jones credited the impact of his forwards in giving his side the edge: “Ultimately, our scrum won the game for us and I’d like to highlight the players and the work that our coaches have been doing there. Chile are a well drilled team. They didn't come to play pretty football tonight but we have to be able to adjust to that better,” Jones added.

Hooker and captain Ben Roberts was “relatively pleased” with the result, saying, “Our first objective was to get the win. We knew they would be tough up front and they obliged us and lived up to our expectations there certainly, but we started to break them down a bit towards the end of the first half.

“We talked about needing to establish some forward dominance going into the game, and I feel we probably got the better of them. There was about six or seven scrum penalties and a few good driving mauls. There are still things to work on of course, but all in all we’re relatively pleased.”

Russia’s 31-10 victory over Kenya was enough to secure them the title for a third straight year. They will face Chile on Saturday, while Hong Kong will look to extend their recent dominance after beating Kenya in Nairobi this summer. Hong Kong and Chile are currently tied second on the table with five points each.

After two forwards heavy efforts, Roberts notes that Kenya will pose an entirely different challenge.

“Kenya have a completely different style. It is something different for us to prepare for, but we will be going for it and looking to come out with another win.”

Jones agreed that the challenge only gets greater for Hong Kong in this tournament.

“The competition this year is great. Russia are a little bit out there, but any one of the three other teams can beat each other. No disrespect to previous competitions, but there has been Russia and probably two weaker teams in the past, but all of them are conducting themselves well this year.

“We need more games like this. You can see it was a real test for us tonight. Kenya played very well against Russia and I think the score line flattered Russia a bit at the end of the day, so it will be another tough day at the office come Saturday,” Jones added.