Hong Kong rugby: Tigers go third after late win over Kowloon
- Penalty in final minute enough to give Tigers a 15-13 victory over Kowloon in pulsating encounter at King’s Park
- Victory moves Tigers into third ahead of Saturday’s matches, while bonus point is enough for Kowloon to remain second
A moment of inspiration from Kroll USRC Tigers’ scrum-half Liam Slatem in the dying seconds of a pulsating encounter at King’s Park was enough to give his side a narrow 15-13 win over DAC Kowloon on Friday night.
The Hong Kong captain’s quick thinking from a penalty inside his own half caused chaos in the Kowloon defence, and when they infringed for a second time Jake Myers slotted over the penalty sealing an impressive comeback.
Victory moved Tigers temporarily into third in the Dettol Men’s Premiership ahead of Saturday’s matches, while the losing bonus point means Kowloon remain second no matter what happens around them.
It was the second time in two weeks that Tigers have won at the death, and while delighted with the result Lewis Evans, their director of rugby, said it was not part of the plan.
“We don’t want to keep doing it this way,” he said “We want to make things easy on ourselves, but you have to admire the character we showed. The fact that we were defending our line with seven, eight minutes left and then to get that penalty and for Slatsy to tap and go, it shows what a quality player he is and how he controls the game for us.”
For Kowloon, it was again a case of what might have been in an injury-plagued season.
Drafted into kicking duties, centre George Watkins missed a couple of penalties in the first half, although he did make one and convert Fong Kit-fung’s sixth try of the season to give his side a 10-7 lead at half-time.
We gave them easy field position. We had them and then we allowed a simple line break on the edge
Tigers had earlier gone ahead after a nervy opening, when Slatem conjured up a two-man overlap and Myers scored out wide before adding the extras.
With little separating the two sides, there was a furious start to the second half and Kowloon’s defence did well to hold out on their own line against a succession of Tigers’ attacks.
The roles were reversed soon afterwards and neither side was able to get across to score the final 15 minutes, when Tigers lock Liam Edwards finished off a fine move started by Sam Purvis, putting his side 12-10 in front.
For a time it seemed as if Myers’ missed conversion would come back to haunt his side, and a Watkins penalty looked like settling matters as Kowloon went 13-12 in front.
Then came a crucial turnover from Tigers captain Lawrence Miller, a moment of magic from Slatem, and the game turned for a final time.
Kowloon’s bonus point was little consolation player-coach Joe Barker, who called the result “very frustrating”.
“We gave them easy field position,” he said. “We had them and then we allowed a simple line break on the edge. They won the game from us being dominant on the line through a tap penalty and a second silly penalty.”
