Hong Kong’s Olympic hopes were dashed by a powerful Samoa at the Cup quarter-final stage of the repechage event in Monaco, with a 31-12 loss ending its campaign.

Hong Kong showed some promising signs early in the match - striking first blood through a try to Salom Yiu Kam-shing to lead 5-0 after Jamie Hood missed the conversion.

That was as good as it got for Hong Kong, however, with Samoa putting its foot on the gas to run in three tries before the break to take a 19-5 half-time lead.

Samoa Toloa was the star of the show, scoring all three first-half tries to give his side the ascendancy.

Samoa pushed the margin out to 19 points early in the second half before Yiu scored his second to close the deficit to 12 points with a couple of minutes to go, but Hong Kong never looked like staging a comeback.

“It takes a couple of games like that in a tournament to focus the mind and those elements are make or break in terms of winning or losing games,” Hong Kong coach Gareth Baber said.

“We were slightly off in our accuracy under pressure in certain situations, especially in the contact area. It’s tough. You come up against a team like Samoa that lost one yesterday and looks like it has the intention of not losing one today. They were simply better on the day.”

Samoa exposed Hong Kong with their size, constantly winning the disputed ball and pushing forward.

“Samoan rugby is very much based around the individual and his ability to step and turn and create space on his own,” Baber said.

“They’re big physical men as well. When you put that in conjunction with their physicality in the contact area, well you have got to have the physical specimen to be able to do that in the first place or to combat it. We don’t have those in Hong Kong.”

After the loss to Samoa, Hong Kong were routed to the Plate competition, shifting their attentions to a late game against Chile, with the winner advancing to a spot in the fifth-placed playoff against Canada.

Samoa advanced to face Germany in the semi-finals, while Russia play Spain.

On day one of the competition, Hong Kong secured top spot in pool D with impressive victories against Mexico, South Korea and Spain.

About HKRU

The Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU) was founded in 1952, and became an affiliated union of World Rugby in 1988. In 1968, the HKRU became a founding member of Asia Rugby and remains committed to the development of the game in Asia. The HKRU has hosted the world-famous Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens since 1976 and remains the only Union to have hosted two sevens World Cups in 1997 and 2005. In 2008, the HKRU hosted the first ever neutral venue Bledisloe Cup - hosting a second match in 2010. In 2013, the HKRU hosted the first British & Irish Lions match played in Asia and the following year hosted the first regional Olympic qualifier tournament for Rugby Sevens. The HKRU is a member of the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China and provides competitive and social rugby opportunities for men and women at every age and skill level, with a thriving community of over 10,000 players. To learn more please visit www.hkrugby.com, www.facebook.com/hkrugby and twitter.com/HongKongRugby.