Russia Thump Hong Kong to Win Cup of Nations

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Russia’s 27-0 victory over hosts Hong Kong secured their second straight Cup of Nations title after the defending champions won all three matches beating Zimbabwe (19-15) and Papua New Guinea (49-19) earlier in the week. The score line flattered the champions to a degree with the game evenly contested apart from the first and last ten minutes of the game.

Early nerves saw Hong Kong concede a 12-0 advantage in the opening quarter as Russia kept the ball in the forwards, capitalising on their size their opening drives were rewarded with two tries inside the opening ten minutes.

No.8 Pavel Butenko barrelled over the line from in close to score Russia’s first try in the seventh minute. Fly half Yurii Kushnarev was off with his conversion, but would get a second chance three minutes later after flanker Tagir Gadzhiev charged down a poor Hong Kong clearance kick on the try line before diving on the loose ball for his side’s second try in the tenth minute.

Kushnarev’s conversion extended the margin to 12-0 and Hong Kong were never able to close the gap. Kushnarev added a penalty late in the half as the game tightened up to give Russia a 15-0 margin at the break.

“I didn’t think Russia were 27 points better than us,” said Hong Kong coach Leigh Jones after the match, “but if you give them a 12 or 15 point start that is normally how it ends up. Ultimately, against quality teams like Russia if you make silly errors or bad decisions, you get punished, and that is what happened in the first 15 or 20 minutes.”

Left with much work to do after the opening quarter, Hong Kong settled into its patterns and started to show what it was capable of, but despite creating several scoring opportunities Hong Kong couldn’t capitalise as the hosts struggled in the accuracy stakes.

Hong Kong upped the pressure in the second half but the Russians boxed clever with Kushnarev and fullback Ramil Gaysin demonstrating some strong tactical kicking skills to keep Hong Kong moving backwards.

With Hong Kong trailing late in the game, Jones emptied his reserves bench and the hosts lost some of their shape, conceding two tries in the final ten minutes.

Winger Denis Simplikevich collected both tries against the run of play with his first coming in the 70th minute and his second on the stroke of full-time. Kushnarev slotted the second conversion to extend the visitors margin to 27-0 as the hooter sounded for full-time.

“While it is a 27-0 thumping at home, I’m not too despondent, because I am seeing signs that we are going in the right direction,” said Jones. “At times we had the Russians out on their feet, but we couldn’t ram that advantage home and turn that pressure into points.”

“We are developing a style of play that I think suits Hong Kong and we just need to keep working hard to be able to stick with that style for longer periods and under pressure,” Jones added.

A delighted Russia captain Vasily Artemyev gave full credit to Hong Kong saying: “The final was challenging as expected and I’m pleased at the result. Hong Kong is making progress. We got a few good scoring opportunities early on by keeping it tight, but in open play they are as strong as anyone we face.”

“They are hard to defend and hard to break down because they have a lot of speed and play very wide. But we stuck to our game plan and were more clinical than in our first two games,” added Artemyev.

The tournament will aid Russia’s build-up for the European championships early next year.

“Hong Kong play an interesting type of rugby and something we would expect from teams like Belgium, Spain and Germany in the European Cup so this competition is really helpful for us,” Artemyev added.

Tonight’s bonus point win sees Russia finish at the top of the table on 14 points, followed by Hong Kong (10), Zimbabwe (7) and Papua New Guinea (0).

Zimbabwe outran and outmuscled Papua New Guinea this afternoon, extending a 13-8 half-time lead to a final 38-11 victory.

The Papuans took an early lead after a penalty from fullback and captain Tisa Kautu, but Zimbabwe reclaimed the lead after No.8 Njabulo Ndhlovu’s try in the 7th minute. Winger James Lumaris pulled Papua New Guinea level in the 19th minute, but Zimbabwe built steam from then on, with a try from winger Tafadzwa Chotokwindo and a penalty from fullback Lenience Tambwera, giving them a 13-8 lead at the break.

The second half was one-way traffic as Zimbabwe found gaps in the Papua New Guinea interior defence to run in a further three tries while Tambwera added two more penalties. Winger Stephen Hunduza flashed some great individual skills to claim an 80-metre try in the 55th minute, breaking the Papuan resistance for good and bringing the score to 24-8 after two previous penalties from Tambwera.

Centre Riaan O’Neill and flanker Andrew Rose widened the floodgates with loping tries through the middle of the Papuan defence while conversions from Tambwera and fly half Tichifara Makwanya rounded out the scoring at 38-11.

Zimbabwe coach Cyprian Mandenge was pleased to cap off a fruitful week with a win, saying, “We are improving with every game. We got a result today, but there are a lot of areas we want to polish. We are losing too much possession and some of our decision-making was poor.

“But it’s good to finish with a win. We didn’t win last year, so I’m happy. There is some progress, but our big problem is that we lack game time. This is only our fourth game of 2016 and that’s not good enough. We want to play more games, which is why tournaments like this are so important,” Mandenge added.

“The teams in Africa are gaining ground on us. Kenya is playing a lot of games and they beat us this year in the African Cup. We aren’t the bullyboys anymore so we need more games so we can start challenging again. This is a higher standard than the Africa Cup, but we believe we can beat the teams here, especially if we can get more game time,” Mandenge added.

Papua New Guinea coach Sydney Wesley shared Mandenge’s assessment of the competition: “We can take a lot from this tournament. The standard of the other teams will go a long way towards developing our rugby. It is a lot tougher than our competition back home, the biennial FORU tournament.”

“This week has helped us identify some areas to work on. We need to improve our set piece and our scrums and lineouts. We will work hard on these areas leading up to the FORU Cup next year. Hopefully we will perform well there and get an invite back to this tournament. I am sure that with more game time we would come back a lot better and stronger,” Wesley added.

Additional reporting and image: HKRU

Russia and Hong Kong Win

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On match day two in the Cup of Nations Russia pounded Papua New Guinea, 49-19, and Hong Kong beat Zimbabwe 34-11. The victors setting up a rematch of last year’s winner-take-all clash on the 19 November, at Hong Kong Football Club.

After a narrow 19-15 win over Zimbabwe in the opening round, defending champions Russia recorded a comprehensive, seven-try victory over Papua New Guinea. Russia captain and flanker Viktor Gresev again proved an unstoppable force; scoring a hat trick of tries to add to the brace he collected against Zimbabwe. Gresev now leads all scorers with five tries over two matches.

Gresev’s first try came in the third minute as the massive Russian pack brought its weight to bear early on. Sustained Russian pressure forced Papua New Guinea to concede a penalty try for repeated infringements at the ruck in the 12th minute, before Gresev claimed his second try in the 19th minute.

Papua New Guinea got on the board with a try against the run of play from winger John Ephraim in the 21st minute. The unsuccessful conversion left them trailing 21-5.

Scrumhalf Anton Ryabov found space on the fringes of a ruck to cross over for a try in the 26th minute while hooker Valery Tsnobiladze added a fifth try moments later.

Centre Tisa Kautu added three points for Papua New Guinea with a penalty shortly before half-time as Russia took an unassailable 35-8 lead into the break.

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Russia were less convincing in the second half, while Papua New Guinea got off to a flying start, scoring 11 unanswered points from two penalties by Kautu and a try to flyhalf Richard Aitsi to close the gap to 35-19.

It was the second straight match where the Russian defence went walkabout after they let Zimbabwe climb back into the round 1 match. Unsurprisingly, it was Gresev who helped quell any nerves as he and Ryabov added their third and second tries respectively to seal a 49-19 win. Flyhalf Yury Kusnarev was perfect with the boot, converting all seven of Russia’s tries.

In the second match of the doubleheader at Kings Park, the hosts jumped ahead to a 17-3 half-time lead before going on to win 34-11 win, collecting a second bonus point of the tournament to stay at the top of the table after two rounds.

A dominant set piece performance by Hong Kong gave the host the run of play in the first half. Prop Alex Ng Wai-shing scored the home side’s first try in the third minute, collecting the ball at the base of a ruck beneath the posts before crashing over from in close.

With Hong Kong’s forward pack dominating early on, the speedy backline had ample ball to work with and quickly set about testing Zimbabwe’s conditioning and defence. Although battling bravely, gaps soon appeared in the visitors’ defence and fullback Alex McQueen was the first to exploit the space when he finished off a lengthy attacking phase to touch down in the corner in the eight minute.

Hong Kong flyhalf Ben Rimene was also perfect with the boot, adding both conversions and a penalty in the first half to push his side to a 17-0 lead after 25 minutes. Zimbawe’s first points came from a well-struck penalty from flyhalf Lenience Tambwera in the 30th minute to leave the score at 17-3 at halftime.

Zimbabwe had an early lift after halftime when Tambwera nailed his second penalty in the 41st minute but Rimene replied four minutes later as the sides exchanged three-pointers.

No.8 Thomas Lamboley capped his Hong Kong debut with a try in the 53rd minute as the rangy forward took out a well-deserved reward for 80 minutes of high work rate and hard graft. Rimene’s conversion pushed Hong Kong’s lead to 27-6 with 25 minutes remaining.

Alex McQueen capped another quietly devastating performance when he completed his brace in the 62nd minute with Rimene’s conversion a formality.

Centre Riaan O’Neal spoiled Hong Kong’s final patch of play as he flashed a clean pair of heels to cross over in the 65th minute but Tambwera’s conversion was off the mark. Final score 34-11.

“It was really good to get the win,” said Hong Kong captain Nick Hewson, “But we were a bit disappointed not to take some of the chances we created, especially in the second half.

“Our set piece was good, we had a high percentage of possession and the backs were creating opportunities tonight so hopefully we can execute a few more of those chances on Saturday,” Hewson added.

“Now we can go into the game against Russia with a bit of confidence. We know it is another step up, but we are well ahead of where we were last year. We are creating more plays, our ball carriers are better and our defence is stronger. We gave them points off of our mistakes today and we can’t afford that against Russia,” Hewson added.

Russia beat Hong Kong 31-12 in last year’s effective final, the rematch takes place at 5pm on 19 November at Hong Kong Football Club. Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea will play in the curtain raiser at 2pm, entry is free.

Hong Kong v Zimbabwe:
1. Adam Fullgrabe, 2. Ben Roberts*, 3. Alex Ng Wai-Shing, 4. Finlay Field, 5. Adrian Griffiths, 6. Nick Hewson (Captain), 7. Toby Fenn, 8. Thomas Lamboley*, 9. Jamie Hood (vice Captain), 10. Ben Rimene, 11. Marcus Ramage*, 12. Lee Jones, 13. Ally Maclay, 14. Ryan Meacheam, 15. Alex Mcqueen, 16. Jw Markley, 17. Jack Parfitt, 18. Rohan Cook, 19. Will Eversfield, 20. James Cunningham, 21. Cado Lee Ka-To, 22. Rowan Varty, 23. Edmund Rolston.
*Hong Kong debut

Additional reporting and image: HKRU

Cup of Nations Preview

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The Cup of Nations returns this weekend. The four-team competition features countries selected with an eye on Hong Kong’s potential opponents in the Rugby World Cup 2019 qualification stages. 2015 champions and favourites to defend their title Russia, Zimbabwe, debutants Papua New Guinea and hosts Hong Kong play a round-robin series on three match days, – the 11, 15 and 19 of November.

“We want to win of course” said coach Leigh Jones. “The tournament will provide some important insight, specifically where we are and where we still need to improve, which is particularly important given the new pathways established for Rugby World Cup qualification.”

Under the new Rugby World Cup qualification format, Asia will send it’s top-ranked side, currently Japan, through to the World Cup as Asia 1. Asia 2, the spot filled by Hong Kong in the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualification campaign, will now play a home and away series versus Oceania 4, with the winners advancing to the penultimate stage of qualification, an international repechage series, which in the past has featured Russia and Zimbabwe.

In preparation for the tournament Jones has been working with an expanded training squad of 36 players who were given an extended break from the local Premiership rugby to participate in international training. The extra week allowed Jones to put the squad – comprised of Elite Rugby Programme players, Hong Kong sevens squad members, semi-professional players in the domestic leagues and National Age Grade graduates, through their paces.

“During the training week, we played a mini Cup of Nations format, effectively simulating the varying styles we are likely to face in the Cup of Nations,” said Jones. Who added “This is a great competition for us as it offers the opportunity to expose our players to high intensity matches against teams outside of Asia. With three very different tests in the space of nine days, we will need to be smart in how we use the squad and in selecting the right players to suit the different approaches we will see.”

First up for Hong Kong on the 11 November at King’s Park are Papua New Guinea who will be looking to continue a run of wins over Tahiti, American Samoa and the Solomon Islands that saw them win the 2015 Oceania Cup.

“It’s been difficult to get information on Papua New Guinea, so they are a bit of an unknown but we expect a tough encounter,” said Jones. “They should be quite physical and hard-hitting, so we will need to counter that with a very structured game and will rely on our set piece to perform.”

In Zimbabwe, Jones expects a similar style to that Hong Kong faced when touring Kenya last summer. “Zimbabwe aren’t too dissimilar to Kenya in that they are very athletic and play a very individual style of rugby. We will need to rely on our collective strength and discipline to overcome their individual skills.”

Zimbabwe will be hunting for it’s first win in Hong Kong and it’s first test victory in over a year, after losing all three matches here last year, including a 30-11 loss against Hong Kong. The Sables’ most recent test action was this summer when they lost to Namibia, Kenya and Uganda in the Africa Cup.

Russia, at 21, the highest ranked team in the competition return in good form and are likely to prove the biggest hurdle to Hong Kong’s efforts to win the Cup for the first time. Russia played their most recent tests in June – against tier one unions Canada and USA (both losses). Prior to that they beat Spain, Germany and Portugal in the 2016 European Nations Cup, losing only to Romania.

“Our approach for Russia will be almost diametrically opposite to the first two matches. They are power orientated with a big set piece and play a Northern Hemisphere style game. We will need a different philosophy for this test, one where we try to bring a high tempo into the game, negate their forward dominance and rely on more of our game-changers in the backline,” said Jones.

Cup of Nations
Hong Kong, Russia, Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea
Date: 11, 15, 19 November, 2016
Venues: King’s Park, HK Football Club
Tickets: Free
More info:
11 November @ King’s Park
5pm – Russia v Zimbabwe
7pm – Hong Kong v Papua New Guinea

15 November @ King’s Park
5pm – Russia v Papua New Guinea
7pm – Hong Kong v Zimbabwe

19 November @ HK Football Club
5pm – Zimbabwe v Papua New Guinea
7pm – Hong Kong v Russia

Additional reporting and image: HKRU

Cup of Nations

Cup of Nations
Hong Kong, Russia, Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea
Date: 11, 15, 19 November, 2016
Venue: Kings Park, HK Football Club
Tickets: Free
More info:
11 November @ Kings Park
5pm – Russia v Zimbabwe
7pm – Hong Kong v Papua New Guinea

15 November @ Kings Park
5pm – Russia v Papua New Guinea
7pm – Hong Kong v Zimbabwe

19 November @ HK Football Club
5pm – Zimbabwe v Papua New Guinea
7pm – Hong Kong v Russia