A last-gasp penalty from fly-half Lai Pou Fan helped Hong Kong pull off a thrilling 15-14 victory over Japan in the Asian Women’s 4 Nations at Aberdeen Stadium last night.

Lai, who had earlier missed converting a second-half try from fullback Aggie Poon Pak Yan that would have leveled scores at 14-14, more than made up for that miss as she coolly slotted over the winning penalty with the final kick of the match to give the hosts a scrappy yet welcome victory in the four-team tournament. While top seeds Kazakhstan remained unbeaten after hammering Singapore 68-0 in the first match of the day.

“I thought we played better in our first game against Kazakhstan than we did today, but for long periods of the game we stuck to our game plan and got rewards from that,” said Hong Kong coach Chris Garvey. “I think if we had been a little more patient at times and had a little more trust in our game, then the result may have even been a little less nervy for our management and the fans today. But credit to our girls, in previous games and years, they have crumbled. But today they showed a little more guts and fight, and a whole lot of spirit,” Garvey added.

Hong Kong opened the scoring when inside centre Rose Fong beat her opposite number with a barnstorming run to score in the fifth minute. Lau converted and Hong Kong led 7-0. Japan came back strongly through the impressive No.8 Mami Okada who had scored a hat-trick against Singapore earlier in the tournament. Okada powered her way over for a try from close range from the back of a maul as Japan hit back and went into halftime with the scores level on 7-7.

Japanese centre Ayako Tanaka completed a fine piece of driving play by the pack to score a try and give her team the lead for the first time in the match with winger Ai Tasaka adding her second conversion to make the score 14-7. But Hong Kong, who had lost narrowly to Kazakhstan in their opening match 13-10, never gave up, and it was left to the dangerous Aggie Poon to round off a breathtaking move by the backs after the forwards had punched it up from a lineout to narrow the gap to 14-12. Lau’s last-minute heroics then earned Hong Kong a deserving win.

“Too many mistakes cost us the match,” said disappointed Japan coach Goshi Arimizu. “We played well but made too many mistakes and Hong Kong did better in the second half. Their scrum put us under pressure. We now must look to Kazakhstan and try and finish off well. They beat us last time we played, so this time we play to avenge that loss,” Arimizu added.

The final set of games in the Women’s Asian 4 Nations is on 24 May when Hong Kong take on Singapore (k/o 15:00) and Kazakhstan play Japan (k/o 17:00) at Aberdeen Stadium.

Asian Women’s Four Nations
Where: Aberdeen Stadium, Hong Kong
How Much: Free
More info: www.hkrfu.com