Korea impress to stay in Rugby World Cup contention #ARC2018

Korea beat Malaysia 67-12 in an entertaining fourth match of this year’s Asia Rugby Championship #ARC2018 in Incheon.

Despite conceding nine tries, Malaysia gave a good account of themselves once more in Asia’s elite competition while for Korea, the win puts them back on top of the overall standings.

With the winner of the Top 3 facing the Cook Islands in the next stage of Rugby World Cup qualification, Korea needed the win to stay in contention with Hong Kong and take the lead albeit having played one match more than second-placed Hong Kong.

The hosts got off to a flying start as ‘the Asian Sonny Bill Williams’ Jang Seong Min returned to the starting XV and opened with two tries.

Lock Kim Ho Bum made the most of a lineout for a third before Kim Nam Uk added a fourth.

Korea added a fifth before half-time, this time Nam Uk regained possession inside their own half following an impressive attack from Malaysia and went the entire length of the field before offloading to full back Lee Jae Bok.

It was not all home traffic and Malaysia got a deserved try in the second half, this time they went the whole length of the pitch before outside centre Samuela Tamanisau scored their third try of the championship.

Just as they looked likely to score their second of the match, Korea once again turned the ball over and this time speedster Jeong Min Jang darted through the Malaysian defence to score his fourth try of the championship.

Oh Youn Hyung was in fine form with the boot, kicking his first seven kicks successfully but he missed his eighth kick of the match following replacement Kim Jeong Min added another try for Korea.

Hyung bounced back from that miss to step up and slot a drop goal, his 18th point in the match and as Malaysia tired Kim Nam Uk added a second try.

Malaysia kept pushing and Aiman Jamaludin was the beneficiary from a good scrum, dotting down in the corner but Korea still had time for one more try from Kim Jinh Yeok.

Afterwards captain Lee Yong Seung said: “It was very important to win today especially because we want to head to the World Cup. That is our priority and so we are pretty satisfied with the result.

“We were a bit overwhelmed by the thought of having to make everything perfect though which led to making more mistakes that we would have liked. But we will fix that for the match against Hong Kong.”