Boots And All | Korea will be real test of today’s ‘ton-up’ Hong Kong
Hosts were ‘clinical and professional’ in opening A5N romp, but just like the Class of ’94 bigger challenges lie ahead
It wasn’t quite the hammering Hong Kong gave Singapore in a 1994 World Cup qualifier, but last Saturday’s 108-0 drubbing of the Philippines came close.
Memories of that match at the Stadium Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur came flooding back for a number of reasons, largely because crossing the 100-point threshold is no simple feat.
As head coach Leigh Jones pointed out, it takes focus to keep your eye on the ball when you are winning so easily. “It was clinical and very professional,” he said afterwards.
Every one of those 16 tries scored against the Philippines will count for nothing if we cannot get the better of Korea
Indeed, it would have been so easy for Hong Kong to take their foot off the pedal once they posted 51 points by half-time.
In these days of professionalism, that attitude speaks volumes for the mind-set of the players, a number of whom are full-time athletes at the Hong Kong Sports Institute. Using this as a measure, looking back to what the Class of ’94 did takes on even more significance.
Led by Rodney McIntosh, Hong Kong arrived in Kuala Lumpur for the Asian Championship hopeful of reaching the final and taking on Japan for the right to represent Asia at the 1995 World Cup. Hong Kong were pooled with South Korea, Thailand and Singapore. In the other pool were Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
