On a rainy day, McNeish failed to slot a single conversion, managing just a solitary penalty a week after contributing 18 points with the boot, but his tactical kicking kept South Korea pinned back when it mattered most.

The VPC Andorra player should also have had a try, but he was responsible for butchering one of the three opportunities that Hong Kong let slip, with captain Tom Hill involved in the other two.

Evans’ team still managed to score five though, with Hill crossing just before half-time to put his side 13-3 up and a penalty try at the end of the game, when South Korea full-back Jeong Yeon-sik was sin-binned for pushing the ball out of the goal area with Will Panday poised to strike.

Evans’ assessment of his team’s display largely rested on a scrum that creaked but did not break, and a similarly misfiring line out.

To Hong Kong’s credit though, the scrum fired at exactly the right moments, twice standing firm on their own goal line as South Korea threatened, while all of Post’s tries came from catch and drives inside the Korean 22.

The Richmond hooker’s first came moments after South Korea wing Chang Yeong-heung had been yellow carded for a deliberate knock-on as Hong Kong threatened down the right wing.

That score put the home side 8-0 up after an early McNeish penalty, although the deficit was soon reduced, with Kim Kim-in’s penalty making Hong Kong pay for one of their early indiscretions at the ruck.

Neither side was particularly convincing in the early stages, with balls dropped and passes going astray, while both struggled at the set piece.

Still, Hong Kong’s greater speed in defence and at the breakdown, gave them an edge, and McNeish should have extended his side’s lead with a makeable penalty with little more than 20 minutes on.

As it was, the fly-half drilled the ball onto the crossbar, reacted first to the rebound, skipped past two defenders and sent Hill diving over the line, only to see it ruled out for a forward pass.

Hill should have scored again 10 minutes later, but was tackled by Kim Eui-tae as he dived for the line and dropped the ball forward as he hit the ground.

The Hong Kong captain finally crossed moments later, after South Korea messed up a line-out. Charles Higson-Smith raced away down the left and the ball found its way to Hill who dived over from close range.

Having had the better of the scrum during the first half, South Korea had a chance to get back into the game on the stroke of half-time – but having won a series of free-kicks they then lost the scrum that mattered and the home side went in 10 points to the good.

It took nearly 20 minutes of an error-strewn second-half for Post to grab his second to put his side 18-3 up. But South Korea finally made some of their attacking threat tell, and a clever kick over the top gave Chang the chance to score almost under the posts, which with Kim’s conversion closed the gap to 18-10.

The disjointed nature of the game was largely summed up by McNeish’s missed try. Hong Kong stole possession, moved the ball to Nathan De Thierry, whose pass came off the ankle of Higson-Smith and bounced to the fly-half, who dropped it as he was in the process of touching down.

Hong Kong’s greater possession finally told though, as Post scored a second, and minutes from the end – as Panday chased his own charge down of Kim-in’s clearing kick – Jeong took the only option left.