The Hong Kong U20s lost their opening match of the 2017 World Rugby U20 Trophy 26-7 against Fiji overnight in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Wet conditions lead to heavy footing and eliminated both sides’ speed merchants, playing into the Fijian’s hand as they used the conditions and their size advantage to good effect with all of Fiji’s four tries coming through the forwards.

Fijian captain and lock Temo Mayanavanua put his side on the board in the seventh minute after collecting the ball at the base of a ruck in front of Hong Kong’s posts to muscle over the line.

After conceding the early try, Hong Kong steadied the ship and were competitive for the next hour before falling off the pace in the final ten minutes – conceding two late tries to warp what was otherwise an impressive score line and a good team performance.

Fullback Matt Worley created Hong Kong’s best scoring chance of the opening half, pouncing on an error by the Fijian wing who was put under excellent pressure by good rush defence from Austin Robertshaw. Worley, running well in support, took the loose ball off the floor cleanly and sprinted deep into Fiji territory before being bundled into touch on the five-metre line.

Neither side was able to score for the remainder of the opening stanza with Fiji entering half-time with a narrow 7-0 lead.

Hong Kong started the second half positively, forcing Fiji into a defending scrum on its own try-line in the 48^th minute. Fiji won its put-in but the scrumhalf struggled to control the ball as it flew out the back of the scrum.

Captain Mark Coebergh showed great awareness and a good turn of pace over short distance to nip past his opposing scrumhalf and dive on the ball for Hong Kong’s only try of the afternoon. Worley’s conversion from in front of the posts levelled the scores at 7-all with thirty minutes remaining.

Hong Kong’s building momentum was derailed moments later when hooker Jack Scanlon was shown a yellow card.

Fiji used their man advantage to devastating effect at the first scrum after Scanlon was sent to the sin-bin, as No.8 Bogidrau found space on the blind-side and did well to shrug off an initial tackle before lumbering across the line for Fiji’s second try. The conversion extended the Fijian margin to 14-7.

A committed team-wide defensive effort saw Hong Kong hold the Fijians off for the next eight minutes to return to full strength, but the effort and the heavy going underfoot would prove sapping late in the game as Fiji pulled away with tries in the 71^st and 80^th minutes to push their lead to 26-7 at full-time.

Coebergh was complimentary about his side’s performance saying, “It was an incredibly hard game. Fiji have some big boys and the guys worked really, really hard this week.”

“The muddy conditions forced us to change our tactics quite a bit, but we pride ourselves on adapting to and I thought we did that well. In a game like this normally it is the best to adapt to the conditions that wins the game. We adapted well but we just let it slip away at the end.

“Full credit to the boys. They have worked extremely hard throughout the week and will keep working hard. We will now have a look at the footage to see what we can improve upon in the coming days,” Coebergh added.

Captain and lock Temo Mayanavanua, who like Coebergh scored his side’s first try of the tournament, commended Hong Kong’s performance, saying “They held us to a very tight first half, which is what we expected from them. But the boys held in and came out strong in the second half.

“Give them a round applause, Hong Kong gave us a run for our money and they really taught us a lot,” added the lock forward.

The result sees Fiji go to the top of the table in Pool B on five points with a bonus point for scoring four tries in the match. Portugal, who narrowly edged hosts Uruguay 20-18, are in second place on 4 points trailed by Uruguay who picked up a crucial double bonus point after scoring four tries and finishing within seven points of the winners.