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There was no help at hand in Tokyo - or for that matter in Incheon, South Korea - as Hong Kong's dream of qualifying for the 2011 World Cup was cut to shreds by rampant Japan yesterday. 
Hong Kong were blown away 94-5  in their final outing in the HSBC Asian Five Nations Top Five competition at the Prince Chichibu Stadium in  Tokyo.
However, they still had hopes of staying alive in the World Cup qualifying campaign by finishing second and claiming the spot in the cross-continental play-off against Uruguay, as South Korea were leading 17-0 in Incheon in a game that began an hour later.
Yet powerful Kazakhstan forward Anton 'the Horse' Rudoy had other ideas as he sparked a brilliant comeback, scoring a hat-trick as the former Soviet state won 32-25, and crucially scoring four tries for the vital bonus point.
That point enabled Kazakhstan to finish on 13 points, one ahead of Hong Kong, who failed to secure a bonus point in Tokyo by not scoring four tries, or finishing within a seven-point margin of defeat.
Japan were too powerful and too slick as they out-gunned and  out-thought Hong Kong with a 14-try rampage.
'They were superb; it was a case of a professional outfit coming up against an amateur side,' Hong Kong head coach Dai Rees conceded. 'We were just blown away.'
Japan had the game sewn up in the first quarter when they ran in four tries to clinch the one point they needed to ensure they would represent Asia at the World Cup once more. Yet they did not stop there, smashing their way to a further 10 tries with wingers Alisi Tupuailei and Kosuke Endo grabbing a hat-trick and a brace respectively.
'We have achieved our first target this year, which was to qualify for the World Cup,' Japan coach John Kirwan said.  
Japan will now join host New Zealand, France, Tonga and Canada in pool A in next year's World Cup. Hong Kong, who had hoped the dream would continue by entering the repechage round to decide the 20th and final team, will return home with heavy hearts.
'It is really disappointing. But the biggest disappointment is that we left ourselves with too much to do,' Rees said. 'We should have wrapped up the runners-up slot before arriving in Tokyo, but we had two bad second-halves against the Arabian Gulf and Kazakhstan.'
Outside centre Rowan Varty said: 'Everyone is upset. It wasn't really in our hands, Japan were too good.'
Hong Kong were out-muscled at the breakdown and in the scrums - they were pushed off their own ball time and again - as Japan's powerful forwards set the foundation for  victory.
Rees had placed a great deal of faith in Hong Kong's defence, which had conceded only a couple of tries before the final encounter. Japan made a mockery of that as they punched holes at will.  
With Hong Kong struggling to keep pace with the explosive and high-tempo game of their opponents, the tries flooded in. Japan led 45-0 at half-time, scoring seven tries, and did not let up in the second half as they added seven more.
They could have crossed the century mark in points, but Hong Kong fortunately saw a try in the dying seconds by Goshi Tachikawa disallowed by the referee, who ruled that the Japanese fullback had thrown a punch in an altercation after the try and gave him a red card.
It was no consolation for Hong Kong, whose solitary score came midway through the second half when flanker Mark Wright capitalised on a poor grubber kick by Japan's James Arlidge to hack the ball over the line and pounce on it.  
By then the dream was looking over. And Kazakhstan made sure of it as they stormed to a come-from-behind win that earned them second spot and relegated South Korea to Division One next year.
'All credit to Kazakhstan for going to Korea and beating them by scoring four tries,' Rees said. 'But the gulf between us and Japan was too great. We turned too much ball over and were blown away in the contact area.'
Kazakhstan will now face  Uruguay in July; the winners of that match will take on the winners of the match between Romania or Ukraine and Tunisia  to decide the final place at the World Cup.




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