The Hong Kong China men’s U20 team have now spent just over a fortnight in Nairobi, with one game under their belt and three more to go. 

Game one against Spain was a tough outing for our young team (in fact, the youngest team in the competition with an average age of 18.2 years), with the boys struggling to establish the platform it needed against Spain, the top seeds in Pool B. 

“The boys will be disappointed, but what they gain from that game will benefit us a lot in the future and we will learn so much from it,” said Hong Kong China U20s coach Logan Asplin after the game.

The scrum was a positive - the forwards blunted the Spanish pack’s preferred weapon despite conceding 70 kilos in pack weight - but ensuring the lineout is firing will be a focus for assistant coach Alex Allan ahead of meeting Samoa tomorrow. 

“At a major tournament like this where teams are so motivated to win, we know that every game will be tough, but we exposed our whole squad to the speed and power and pace of international rugby and experienced some adversity together.” Asplin added.

Fly-half and senior squad member Julian Bourron confirmed that sentiment saying, “The game didn’t go the way we wanted to, and credit Spain for a good win, but we kept to our game plan and took the little wins where we could find them. The key message is to move on from Spain and keep training hard. We are really ready for Samoa.”

Outside of preparing for their next game, the team travelled to visit Oloosirikon Primary School in collaboration with the Ololo foundation to play with the local children. 

The backs enjoyed the opportunity to stretch their legs and play racing, passing and catching games, but the “strong men” forwards were the firm favourites of the day with lineout lifts, shoulder rides and swings on offer. Several members of the HKCR management team and captain Tyler McNutt also planted several trees at the school as a gesture of growth and friendship. 

Speaking to the team after their trip, they were all incredibly humbled and full of joy calling it a “fantastic”, “incredible” and “inspiring” morning. A big thank you to the Ololo foundation! 

Meanwhile, coach Asplin has revealed his squad to take on Samoa tomorrow with several strategic changes being made with a view to freshen things up against Samoa and ensure a few key players are resting niggles picked up against Spain, including talismanic scrum-half Camill Cheung. Speedster Joe Denmark receives a start while the forwards receive a slight shuffle. 

“Although we’ll again be conceding a few kilos, the team has been working hard. It is exciting to have three more cracks at the pile and we are really looking forward to and excited to play Samoa.” Said Asplin from Nairobi. 

Hong Kong China U20 v Samoa U20, 10am (local time) 3.00pm HKT

Game available to be streamed here.

1.Samuel MARTIN, 2. Jude HARDING, 3. Billy RIGBY, 4. Ciaran DELANEY, 5. Glenn HUI, 6. Fritz MAHN, 7. Marco CONTI, 8. Tyler MCNUTT ©, 9. Adam BABER, 10. Julien BOURRON, 11. Joshua EUSTACE, 12. Oliver PYLE, 13. Maxwell THRELKELD, 14. Joe DENMARK, 15. Dylan MCCANN, 16. Takuma YAMAUCHI, 17. Izac MANU, 18. David BENNETT, 19. Theodore MAG, 20. Callum FITZHENRY, 21. Camill CHEUNG, 22. Jamie BLAIR, 23. Charles WARREN