Hong Kong men’s XV retained the Asia Rugby Championship in Incheon on Saturday beating South Korea 23-21 with the final kick of the match, despite being a player down for most of the game.
The dramatic Gregor McNeish’s 80th-minute game-winning penalty also means Hong Kong move on to the next stage of the Rugby World Cup 2023 Qualification pathway, setting up an enticing match against Tonga on 23 July in Australia, knowing they are one match away from RWC qualification.
“We did not make it easy for ourselves with some of our indiscipline issues but the result shows the character in this team,” said Lewis Evans after his international coaching debut.
“Going down a man after a minute, and leading at half-time shows the quality and belief that we have in this team and our performance in the last half shows the mental resilience we have developed over the past three years. I cannot say enough about the boys today, they were outstanding,” added Evans.
Right-wing Charles Higson-Smith was shown a red card in the first minute of the match in sweltering conditions at the Namdong Asiad Rugby Stadium after he made contact with his opposing winger’s head.
It was a stark reality check of how the international rugby game has evolved in the last three years. This was the Hong Kong men’s first test match since 2019.
Despite the early setback, Hong Kong worked on their game plan of putting the ball behind the Korean pack and the whole team, man for man, gave their all on cover defence and in physical ball carries throughout the game.
Debutant fly-half Glyn Hughes opened the scoring in the 11th minute with his penalty giving Hong Kong a 3-0 lead, and the lead was extended to 8-0 as the forwards imposed themselves on the Korean pack that set up a rolling maul leading to hooker Alex Post crossing the try line. Hughes’ conversion went wide.
A yellow card to left-winger, Matt Worley, saw Hong Kong play out much of the half with 13 players. Worley made amends when he returned to the field just before halftime adding a second Hong Kong try, after some great team interplay, which was successfully converted by Hughes. 15-0 at half-time.
The Koreans wasted numerous opportunities in the humid conditions, spilling the ball on a few dangerous half-breaks, and their errors were compounded by some excellent scrambling defence from Hong Kong.
Korea eventually got on the board when lock Choi Seong Dook was the beneficiary of a farcical passage of kicking play to put Korea on the board at 15-7.
A sustained period of Korean pressure saw them add a penalty and an unconverted Kim Kwang Min try to set up a nervy final quarter with the scores tied at 15-15.
A Korean penalty allow them to take the lead for the first time, and they pushed ahead 18-15 with ten minutes left.
Buoyed by a loud crowd of over a thousand fans, Korea was applying pressure but Hong Kong patiently set up phases and earned penalties, before Nathan DeThierry, scored in the corner after a perfectly weighted kick pass from McNeish to help Hong Kong regain the lead, 20-18.
Korea came straight back at Hong Kong and earned a penalty from the restart in the 75th minute, to take the lead 21-20.
Hong Kong went searching for a winning score and forced another infringement from Korea in defence, in the dying seconds of the match, McNeish was offered a high-pressure chance to claim a win from the penalty tee.
With no time left on the clock, a tense Hong Kong team saw the ball sail through the posts to clinch an epic win, 23-21.
Additional reporting and images: HKRU