Hong Kong China beat South Korea 62-7 in the finale of the Asia Rugby Men’s U19 Championship last Saturday at Hong Kong Football Club, to claim an eighth straight Asian title and book another appearance at the World Rugby U20 Trophy next year.

Both Hong Kong China and Korea had opened their campaigns with 22-7 and 47-21 wins respectively over Chinese Taipei at King’s Park Sports Ground, setting up a high-stakes final clash in the annual triangular tournament.

The match started strongly for Hong Kong China with Benedict Sheldon first on the score sheet with a well-executed try in the 4th minute, followed by Dominic Hedley touching down after displaying a great turn of pace in the 16th minute.

Isaac Campbell Wu was the next to score from a charged down kick, and his successful conversion of his own try stretched the lead to 19-0, before Blake Elliot closed off the first half with a fourth try from a slick scrum move taking Hong Kong China into the break 26-0 up.

It was more of the same as the second half got under way, with an Isaac Campbell Wu penalty extending Hong Kong China’s lead to 29-0 before Luke Morrow finished off a characteristic strong midfield break from skipper Oliver Clarke to notch up try number five.

Dominic Hedley crashed over next for his second score of the evening, and when replacement front-rower Lucas Molyneux pounced on a handling mistake from Korean fly-half Chanhee Lee for try number seven things were looking ominous for the visitors.

But Korean teams never give up, and loose-head Sungli Choe broke away from a lineout to secure their first points of the evening, which with a successful conversion brought the score to 48-7.

It proved to be only a temporary respite, however, and the home side swiftly responded with a well-executed lineout move that saw replacement Marco Conti touching down in the right corner, before in the final play of the match Luke Bannon scored under the posts – final score 62-7.

Jo Hull, Hong Kong China Rugby's General Manager of Performance, expressed satisfaction with the team's performance and the championship win;  ‘We’re delighted to have won the Asia Rugby U19 Championship, and even more pleased with the performances by the squad throughout the campaign. It was great to see so many of our players who have come through the HKCR pathway out there tonight, and I’d like to pay tribute to our coaching and support team who have worked with them to put together what was an outstanding result this evening. We look forward to continuing to work together with this exciting group of talent as we now build towards the 2024 World Rugby U20 Trophy, where we will join Japan as Asia’s two representatives.’