The Hong Kong men’s U19s opened the 2019 Asia Rugby U19s championship in Taiwan with a win beating Singapore 47-20 in yesterday’s opener.

It was a comprehensive effort for the Men’s U19s, who are bidding for a remarkable seventh straight Asian age grade title, and the corresponding prize, a ticket to the World Rugby Under 20 Trophy for a seventh straight year.

The result was doubly pleasing for coach Mark Wright, taking over from Stephen Dowse’s successful run, considering the squad returns just five players from last year’s team, which had to come back from an opening round loss to South Korea to claim a sixth straight title, as the competition intensifies.

Korea beat the hosts Taipei 22-7 in the other match and will play Hong Kong on 14 December; Hong Kong’s next game is against Chinese Taipei on 11 December.

With a bevy of age grade talent now featuring in Hong Kong’s sevens and fifteen-a-side set-ups, including Sam Tsoi Kin-san and Paul Altier from last year’s U19s squad, the next generation is being called to the task.

They responded convincingly in round one with a heavy win over Singapore, with James Rivers and veteran Toby Jurecka leading the surge, each with a brace of tries, collecting their individual firsts in the opening five minutes, as a blistering start put Hong Kong ahead 14-0 after the opening exchanges

Singapore replied in the 12^th minute with its first penalty to bring the score to 14-3, but Hong Kong responded convincingly with a try moments later to Anthony Coebergh, another 2018 veteran with Tiernan Neville adding the conversion, after Thad Summers scored the first two.

Rivers’s second brought the lead to 28-8 with Neville converting. Neville then added his own score to push the lead to 35-8 after the conversion.

Singapore’s Ethan Wong scored twice down the stretch to bring them to 20 points, but Jurecka’s second try late doubled the margin. Nick McGrory sealed the win with the final score to put Hong Kong home 47-20 winners.  

Hong Kong U19 Squad (ASIA RUGBY UNDER 19 CHAMPIONSHIP 2019)

1.Andrew AU, 2. Ethan BRISCOE,  3. Anthony COEBERGH, 4. James GOSTICK,  5. Thomas HO, 6. Toby JURECKA, 7. Nick KARTON, 8. Sean KENNEDY, 9. Joseph KNIGHT, 10. Josiah KWOK, 11. Martin LAVAL, 12. Mervyn LO, 13. Nick MCGRORY, 14. Simon MORRIS, 15. Tiarnan NEVILLE, 16. Douglas O’DONNELL, 17. Will PANDAY, 18. James RIVERS, 19. Ethan SERJEANT, 20. Thaddeus SUMMERS, 21. SUNG Wai Shing, 22. Alessandro SYSTERMANS, 23. Tomek TSANG, 24. Liam WALTERS, 25. Mario WONG, 26. ZHOU Tianlong