Hong Kong beat Uruguay 31-5 to advance to the Bowl final of the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 against Chile at 2.30pm local time (05.30, 23 July, Hong Kong time).  The win sees Hong Kong through to its first ever Rugby World Cup Sevens competition final after qualifying for every world championship since the quadrennial tournament’s inception in 1993.

A more competitive start saw Hong Kong hold off the Uruguayan attack for most of the early stages as the two sides fought each other to a standstill in the first half.  A yellow card against Uruguay late in the half opened up the attack for Hong Kong with captain Ben Rimene crossing over for the first try in the 5^th minute.

Toby Fenn added to Uruguay’s woes as he capped off another rush attack from the re-start with a try in the 6^th minute. Uruguay replied with their first try in extra time at the end of the half to close the score to 10-5 at the break.

As they have done all weekend, Hong Kong raised its levels in the second half, running in further tries through Michael Coverdale, Max Denmark and Eric Kwok Pak-nga as coach Paul John made liberal use of his bench for the remainder of the match.

Hong Kong will now face Chile, who ushered the SAR out of the World Rugby Sevens Series qualification tournament 24-12 in the quarterfinals, in Hong Kong earlier this year.

Coach Paul John was pleased with his side’s start to finals day.

“The first game on the last day has always been difficult for us in the past and the boys approached it really well and I’m pleased to get the result.

“We played some good sevens, took care of our possession and scored some good tries. It does take awhile to get back into tournament mode and we can’t forget that we have five guys who were just playing fifteens less than two weeks ago.

“I think we were a bit hesitant to start the tournament but are coming into our own now. It would be nice to finish off with a third win this weekend [in the Bowl final].

“If we can finish in that 17^th or 18^th spot after the tournament we will be finishing above our seeding coming in and that will have been a very good result,” John concluded.