“It was a decent day for both squads,” head coach Paul John said. “The boys got two decent wins and with a good points differential after conceding only a few tries, and that puts them in a good place for Saturday.

“It was a much better performance for the girls than in week one, starting with a very good draw with Poland, which gave us a bit of confidence that we can compete at this level. China was a possession game, they kept us in our 22 the whole first half.

“We could have defended better, but overall our defence was much improved over last week, and we held them to only one score in the second half. We played a young squad and it’s good for them to get that experience ahead of the Asian Games.

“If we play like we know we can, we can beat China, but we have to believe it. Every hit out against them is a plus and gets us closer to that. Both teams have put themselves in a good position and we just need to carry on from that tomorrow.”

Hong Kong’s women were resurgent in their opening game behind a much improved defence, fighting Poland to a 17-17 draw – after losing to the same side 31-0 last week.

John’s side trailed 7-0 midway through the first half before Georgia Rivers was set up for their first score after a great break from Chloe Chan.

Stephanie Chan Chor-ki made the conversion to level things up, before Natasha Olson-Thorne’s try pushed Hong Kong ahead at half-time.

After the restart, Poland brought their superior size into play, scoring two tries to lead 17-10 going into the final minute.

But the Polish restart failed to clear 10 metres, giving Hong Kong a crucial scrum at halfway, and Chloe Chan touched down beneath the posts at the hooter, with the successful conversion ensuring Hong Kong shared the spoils.

But in their second pool match of the day, Hong Kong’s women were blitzed by a relentless China in the opening half, their compatriots scoring 22 unanswered points with four tries.

Hong Kong took the fight to China after the break, but their opponents broke against the run of play late on to extend their lead and seal a 29-0 win.

The result, combined with heavy wins for both China and Poland over Mexico, left Hong Kong third in their pool, with a match against the latter to come on Saturday.

After the disappointment of finishing behind Tonga and Germany last week, Hong Kong’s men got off to a flier with a six-try, 31-5 demolition of Papua New Guinea.

Pierce Mackinlay-West scored a brace of tries in the first half, book-ending a score from Hugo Stiles to put Hong Kong ahead 19-0 at the break.

Webb dotted down in the corner to cap a superb team try at the start of the second half, pushing his career Challenger Series scoring record to 117, with Alessandro Nardoni and Alex McQueen closing out the scoring.

In their second match, Zimbabwe struck first taking a 5-0 lead. But from there on out it was all Hong Kong, with Harry Sayers crossing. Hugo Stiles then went clear in the corner for his second try of the day as Hong Kong pushed ahead to 14-5 after Webb’s conversion.

Hong Kong started the second half with a score from Liam Herbert who claimed his fifth try of the series with his first touch of the ball off the bench after dancing out of an arm-tackle, and Sayers then added his second.

James Christie came off the bench to add another score as Hong Kong went 33-5 ahead before allowing a second long-range effort from Zimbabwe as time expired on a 33-12 victory.