Hong Kong’s men made a strong start to their bid to win the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series, beating Papua New Guinea and Italy in their opening games in the heavy rain in South Africa on Thursday.
But despite the unbeaten start to a tournament that Hong Kong must win to have any chance of reaching the world series, head coach Jevon Groves still wasn’t satisfied with his side’s overall performance.
A thumping 26-5 win over PNG was followed by a narrow 22-17 victory in the second game in Stellenbosch, that needed a sterling solo effort at the death from Alessandro Nardoni to decide in Hong Kong’s favour
“Obviously, we are pleased to get two wins today, but our performance was still not where wanted it to be today,” Groves said. “Conditions are pretty difficult with the rains and some really heavy footing, and I think it may come down to who can adapt best to those conditions tomorrow.
“We had some good starts and scored some nice tries with ball in hand, but I think we are all a bit disappointed in our defensive performance today. We probably lacked a bit of aggression. We know that we have it in us and we are definitely going to need that to be improved going into tomorrow.”
Hong Kong’s last game in Pool B is on Friday against Chile, who they beat in their last meeting at the Olympic repechage in 2021. The South Americans beat PNG 22-15 and Italy 17-12 on Thursday.
A Max Denmark try in the first minute started what was largely one-way traffic against PNG at the Marenkott Stadium, with Russell Webb, Pierce MacKinlay-West and skipper Max Woodward also touching down.
Hong Kong jumped out to another hot start against Italy, with Hugo Stiles scoring in the opening seconds, and Seb Brien adding another to push Hong Kong to 17-5 lead at half-time.
But Italy made the most of some turnovers after the break, levelling at 17-17, before Nardoni dragged a defender 40 metres down the pitch to score a spectacular winner.
“It was a really good effort from Ale [Nardoni],” Groves said. “He had just come on and made an impact.
“There was some really good footwork and strength and it was an excellent finish, an excellent try – that’s what he does, but mostly it his leadership has come on so much as well in these few months and I think he showed that in that moment.”
It was a different story for Hong Kong’s women, who blew a healthy lead against Colombia in their first game and were then no match for the physicality of Poland in the second.
Paul John’s side got off to an excellent start against the South Americans, with Maggie Au Yeung Sin-yi scoring straight from the kick-off and Rose Wright adding the extras.
Despite an error-strewn opening, Wright scored a second to put Hong Kong 12-0 up, their opponents scored late to make it 12-5 at half-time.
With the rains intensifying, the second half turned into a stalemate with neither team able to get traction with ball in hand, but made mistakes at crucial times and eventually lost 17-12.
There was nothing close about the second game against Poland, who also beat Paraguay to end the day undefeated.
Poland’s superior size and strong defence, combined with the heavy turf, conspired to starve Hong Kong of any meaningful possession, and they spent most of the game on the back foot.
Trailing 19-0 at half-time, Hong Kong eventually lost 31-0. They face Paraguay tomorrow in their final game in Pool D.
“It was a tough day,” John said. “It was frustrating to lose after going up against Colombia. Poland were a good side and we knew that coming in. We allowed them to play and stood off of them too much and as a result we fell off of a few tackles and gave them some easy tries.
“We are disappointed with day one but we must bounce back and put in a better performance tomorrow. We play Paraguay which will be a good test for us.”