Hong Kong finish as Bowl runners-up at Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 #RWC7s

Hong Kong finish as Bowl runners-up at Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018

Hong Kong lost to Chile 20-7 in its first-ever Bowl final appearance at a Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament.

Hong Kong finished in 18th place overall of the 24 men’s teams competing at the world championships this weekend in San Francisco.

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Another slow start saw Hong Kong under the cosh early on in the final, as Chile scored three unanswered tries to take a 15-0 lead at halftime.

Scrumhalf Cado Lee Ka-to put his side on the board with a try in the ninth minute. Captain Ben Rimene’s conversion was successful, but Chile managed a fourth try three minutes later to close out the match comfortably and claim the Bowl.

Defensively Hong Kong held the line well against Chile, missing only four tackles – albeit each of those proved crucial.

Aided by some confusing decision-making by the referee at the contact area during critical periods of play, the Chileans beat Hong Kong for a second time on the trot this season, after having ushered the hosts out of the World Series qualifier in April at the Hong Kong Stadium.

“It was a tough ask probably for this side, considering the short time the team has been together. Chile are a good team, so I’m not really disappointed with the loss,” said coach Paul John after the match.

“We defended ok, but when we had the ball, we didn’t really take it to our opposition like we had in the morning [against Uruguay]. We weren’t as decisive as we had been in our last two games.

“But we managed to get a lot of players some good experience in a quality tournament this weekend. We won two and lost two, and weren’t far away from winning a third so it’s been pretty successful really,” said John.

John was pleased with the performance of the three players in the side making their senior sevens debuts, each of whom got significant playing time over the weekend: Alessandro Nardoni, Liam Herbert and Max Denmark.

“They all played well,” said John. “They have also gotten their first experience of top quality sevens now, so from that point of view alone it has been a great tournament for us.

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The successful return of Hugo Stiles and Lee Jones from injury will build further competition in the squad, who return to Hong Kong on Tuesday to start preparations for the Asian Games in late August and the Asian Sevens Series starting in September.

Asian Games and the Asia Rugby Sevens Series

“There are a lot of boys at home who weren’t selected and the boys here are performing well, so we should have a very competitive selection now for the Asian Games and the Asia Rugby Sevens Series, which is important,” said John.