The Hong Kong China men’s rugby XV beat South Korea 30-10 to retain the Asia Rugby Championship. It is the fourth straight win for Hong Kong China in the competition. A similar team to that which beat Malaysia 88-9 last weekend handled the challenge from a youthful South Korea XV with six first caps in the squad, extending a 13-3 lead at half-time to a final 30-10 margin in the second stanza. Hong Kong finished the series with a positive points differential of 99 points from the two games, the first men’s test matches held in the city since 2019. Tonight’s test was in doubt from torrential rains until shortly before kick-off, but the weather eventually cleared, leaving behind humid conditions and a greasy ball, contributing to a number of knock-ons and errors from both teams. Ultimately Hong Kong’s experience shone through as they executed best in the conditions. Three of Hong Kong’s five tries came from the rolling maul with hooker Alex Post nabbing all of those touchdowns to push his total to five tries for the series after scoring twice against Malaysia.

“I genuinely can’t take any credit for that,” said a modest Post after the game. “It is the forwards doing the hard work up front; I’m just sitting on the back. It was a great shift from the forwards today.”

Captain Tom Hill added a try late in the first half while South Korea conceded a penalty try in the final quarter after reserve Will Panday charged down a Korean clearance with his first touch of the ball after coming on late in the match. Fullback Jeong Yeonsik shoved Panday off the ball and was sin-binned while the penalty try was awarded.

The hosts jumped out to an early 3-0 lead after a running of the bulls in the first haff with backrower Luke Van der Smit influential with ball in hand in bashing the Korea defence. Hong Kong’s big men made the gain-line with ball in hand regularly but a stout defensive effort from the visitors kept things tight throughout.

After ten minutes, Korea conceded a penalty for not rolling away in the ruck. Fly half Gregor McNeish notched the early points, but would go 0-for-5 from his attempts after that, hitting the crossbar twice. The game stalemated after the early strike until Korea picked up a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on, (the harshest call in rugby), after centre Chang Yongheung couldn’t corral an intercept try attempt.

Hong Kong kicked to touch, setting up the first of Post’s tries from the back of the maul as the home pack executed perfectly to score from 20-metres and push the margin to 8-0 after 12 minutes. Fly half Kim Kimin put Korea on the board minutes later after his forwards forced a penalty at the scrum, one of four similar penalties in the first half.

Korea’s forwards gave Hong Kong headaches at the lineout as well, with five re-starts failing to go to hand today, three in the first half. That parity in the forwards, combined with five knock-ons from Hong Kong in the first period kept the game tightly contested.

Hong Kong’s dangerous backs got into the action shortly before the break when captain Tom Hill emerged from a chase pack of five red jerseys to claim a try after the defending wingers’ clearance grubber failed to make touch. McNeish’s conversion missed but Hong Kong had taken the momentum into the break leading 13-3.

South Korea then dominated the third quarter, maintaining possession and territory for large swathes of play after the re-start. Hong Kong’s defence held strong while a young Korean side lacked the necessary deception in-close and could not unlock the tight defence. Korea’s scrum generated its best scoring chance of the game when it looked as if they had scored their first try off of a driving shove, but it was disallowed after video review. Patrick Jenkinson was sent to the sin bin midway through the half, leaving the hosts a man adrift, but Hong Kong conjured up a back-breaking short-handed try after a great nudge from hand from McNeish turned the Korean defence and cleared lines. One play later and Hong Kong had its second try - again from the rolling maul line-out, again from long-range, and again from Post. Korea were left staring at a 18-3 deficit in what was ill reward for their sustained pressure.

They scored a deserved first try in the 65th minute, but the fact that it came off of a well-executed chip and chase showed they still had no answer for unlocking Hong Kong’s defensive wall. The points count either way however, as South Korea closed the margin to 18-10 with 15 minutes remaining.

Hong Kong produced another quick-fire try with McNeish looking to have scored from a fortuitous kick ahead from Charles Higson-Smith, but it was also reversed after video review. Undaunted Hong Kong would score a minute later, from a third driving maul and again with Post collecting as he completed his hat-trick while pushing the margin to 23-10. The penalty try brought the final score to 30-10.

“The boys performed,” said Hong Kong coach Lewis Evans. “We knew it would be a difficult test and every time we really got tested - in the scrum, or in our try-line defence, we really stood up,” said Hong Kong China head coach Lewis Evans after the match.

“Korea challenged us. They played some really good rugby and as head coach-slash-defence coach I’m very happy with our performance. It wasn’t perfect. We knew the set piece was going to be important and the scrum would be tough. It took us awhile to adapt, but we did, and I think the final score-line reflected that. It was a fantastic result. We knew we had to win both games and to win with that kind of superiority in the opener and to get a bonus point today, we couldn’t have asked for more than that.