Progress continued apace for the Hong Kong, China men’s sevens team at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta as they advanced to tomorrow morning’s cup semi final against South Korea at 15.18 (Hong Kong time).  Hong Kong’s Women’s Seven lost in the cup quarterfinals to Thailand to route to tomorrow’s 5th-8th placing matches, with their first up match also against South Korea at 13.06.

Both sides started the day strongly, advancing comfortably through their final pool matches, with the men maintaining their clean sheet thus far with a 36-7 win over Thailand, while the women beat Korea 38-0 in the morning action.

Korea never threatened Hong Kong’s dominance, conceding four tries in the first half to Ivy Kwong Sau-yan, Natasha Olson-Thorne and two to Chong Ka-yan. Aggie Poon Pak-yan and Stephanie Chan Chor-ki added tries in the second half with Chan accounting for five out of six conversions.

The women then advanced to a tough cross over match against Group B side, Thailand, a thorn in the squad’s side over the years, particularly at Asian Games time. That trend continued in Jakarta as Thailand advanced to the medal round after a 15-7 nail-biter over Hong Kong.

Hong Kong fell behind in the early stages before Vivian Poon Hoi-yan levelled the score at 5-all late in the first half.  The match was evenly contested throughout nearly all of the second half, but it was the Thais that appeared to benefit from some confusing decision-making by the referee, going on to score two late tries to advance to tomorrow’s cup semi final against Japan.

“We always thought that game was going to be a contest between two very evenly matched teams; that’s what we expected and that’s what we got,” said Hong Kong coach Kevin West. 

“We felt we were on the wrong end of a few decisions and I think that impacted our patience and our ability to concentrate on executing our processes. Aligned with that, Thailand were a bit more clinical than we were.

“It is a great disappointment for the girls as we are out of the medals now, and that was certainly our goal coming in; however, this is a learning process and our focus has always been to assess ourselves on each individual game.

“As good as Thailand were, and as deserving as Thailand were, we spelled our own downfall a bit, so that gives us real motivation to correct that. It is a three-day tournament and we are determined to go out tomorrow and prove that the result against Thailand was an aberration,” West noted.

China and Kazakhstan advanced to the other women’s cup semi final.

Thailand’s men’s seven did not threaten Hong Kong in their final pool tie, as Hong Kong advanced 36-7 to complete the preliminary rounds without a loss.  That result set up a re-match against Thailand in the quarter-finals with Hong Kong putting in an improved showing with a 52-0 win to advance to the medal rounds.  

Coach Paul John was again able to make liberal use of the latest crop of youngsters in today’s sweep of Thailand. The most recent player drafted in from the U20s ranks, Liam Herbert, who made his senior debut at the World Cup Sevens last month, opened the scoring against Thailand, while Salom Yiu maintained his rich vein of form - adding his fifth try of the two-day old competition.

Ale Nardoni was sin-binned late in the first half, facilitating Thailand’s only try of the half before Lee Jones added a third score to give Hong Kong a 19-7 lead at the break.

Second half Tries from captain Ben Rimene, forward Michael Coverdale and a second from Jones rounded out the scoring.

It was rinse and repeat for Hong Kong in the cup quarter final, as Hong Kong this time blew out their opponents 52-0.

Jamie Hood scored two tries in the first half, book-ending another try from Yiu - his sixth of the Asiad - with Ale Nardoni adding a fourth score in the opening bracket, as Hong Kong led 26-0 after seven minutes.  The second half saw more one-way traffic as Max Denmark added two tries with Lee Jones and Eric Kwok Pak-nga scoring his first try of the Games as Hong Kong ran out 52-0 winners.

Hong Kong did enough in the Group states to ensure that it remained on the opposite side of the cup brackets to defending gold medallists, Japan.  

The Japanese, who eliminated Hong Kong four years ago in the final in Incheon - are again on track to reach the main event tomorrow afternoon in Jakarta.

Coach Paul John was pleased with his side’s outing this afternoon.

“I’m pleased with the wins, particularly what was a more efficient performance in the second game. Everyone has come through the first two days without incident and everyone contributed well to the performances today.

“All of the top four teams have advanced to the semi finals now and Korea are looking very good and very physical, so it will be another step up for us tomorrow,” John added.

Japan will play Sri Lanka, who pipped China 17-12 in the quarters, in its semi final.

Photo credit : Asia Rugby Facebook