Hong Kong’s World Cup dream shattered by Uruguay
Ill-discipline costs RWC minnows as South Americans turn the screw in scrum
- Please click here to see more photos from Hong Kong’s RWC qualifier against Uruguay.
Ill-discipline and a superior Uruguayan scrum combined to shatter Hong Kong’s World Cup dream with the South Americans advancing to the repechage final with a comfortable 28-3 victory in Montevideo on Saturday.
It is hugely disappointing because it was such a tight game. It was 6-3 at half-time and we were very much in it
Uruguay will now meet Russia in a home-and-away final play-off for the 2015 World Cup in England. Russia had earlier defeated Zimbabwe 23-15 in Krasnoyask, Siberia.
The winner will become the 20th and last team and join pool A alongside Australia, England, Fiji and Wales.
“It is a very disappointing result,” said Dai Rees, Hong Kong Rugby Football Union’s head of technical development and performance. “It was disappointing in the way we lost as it came down to penalties.”
If being reduced in numbers wasn’t enough of a liability, Asia’s second-best team also struggled in the set piece being pushed on to the back foot by the Uruguayan forwards who dominated the scrums to set the foundation for an unanswered 22 points in the second half.
“We had a massive penalty count against us, at least 20, and of course the two yellow cards to Leon and Nick cost us,” Rees said. “With the penalty count we couldn’t get the continuity to play the attacking game which was always going to be crucial for us.”
