Hong Kong’s men crush Japan in flying start to World Rugby Sevens Challenger event in Uruguay
- City’s men finish day top of Pool B after beating Japan and Chile on opening day in Montevideo
- Hong Kong women grab surprise win over Kenya thanks to two tries from Natasha Olson-Thorne
Hong Kong’s men got off to a flying start in the second round of the World Rugby Sevens Challenger series, hammering Japan and coming from behind to beat Chile to end the first day in Uruguay unbeaten.
The city’s women made the best possible start in their pool, beating Dubai runners-up Kenya 12-0 on the back of two Natasha Olson-Thorne tries, but they then lost 24-5 to Belgium, who finished the day top of the group having earlier downed Papua New Guinea 37-5.
Jevon Groves’ men ran in six tries, and Hugo Stiles converted five, in a 42-7 thumping of their Asian rivals, who beat them to Olympic qualification in November.
Liam Doherty got Hong Kong on the board with just two minutes gone at the Estadio Charrúa in Montevideo, and Cado Lee added the first of his two scores a minute later.
It was one way traffic from then on, with Max Denmark, two tries from Seb Brien, and a second from Lee, which was converted by Bryn Phillips, putting their side 42 points ahead with only two minutes left to play.
All that was left was for Takamasa Maruo to grab Japan’s consolation score, which Ryota Kano converted.
Denmark picked up where Lee left off against Japan, scoring in the first minute against Chile, with Hugo Stiles’ conversion giving Hong Kong a 7-0 lead.
But the South American’s took charge after that, grabbing tries through Ernesto Tchimino and Nicolas Garafulic. Diego Warnken’s successful conversions put Chile 14-7 up at the break.
It took less than a minute after the restart for Hong Kong to draw level, when Denmark crossed again. He then added a third four minutes later to put his side 19-14 up.
In the women’s competition, China continued the fine form that saw them crowned champions at the opening round in Dubai with convincing victories over Paraguay 29-5 and the Czech Republic 28-15.
But they trail Poland on points difference in Pool A as the European nation impressed with big wins over the Czechs 46-0 and Paraguay 32-5.
“We are happy with our wins today but there are many things that we can still improve like our tackling,” China’s Chen Keyi said. “We want to keep our rhythm and our flow and aim not to let the opponents score first.”
