Andrew Wong Kee's 15s debut for Hong Kong was remarkable. The scrumhalf scored the winning try in the 21-19 victory over Taiwan in the one-off international at King's Park. But he should count himself fortunate for being on the artificial park in the second half, and being around to extricate the home team from trouble yesterday.
By all rights, Wong Kee should have been a spectator and Hong Kong reduced to 14 men in the second half after the scrumhalf was involved in a horrific high tackle which sent a Taiwanese player to hospital with his neck in a brace. But referee Bill Mason, who was unsighted and informed of the incident by the touch judge, chose to take a lenient stance.
And Hong Kong breathed a huge sigh of relief as Wong Kee was only asked to cool his heels in the sin-bin for the regulation 10-minute period. Coming back in the second half, with Hong Kong trailing 14-19, the tough half-back quickly imposed his presence on the action and soon turned match-winner when he scored a lovely try having linked superbly with winger Alex Zenovic.
Taiwan paid for being over-adventurous and running the ball from inside their own 22. The move ended in turnover ball and a scrum to Hong Kong. With the front row of Pete Spizzirri, Jon Abel and James Wood solid all night long, good ball was assured. And Wong Kee made the most of it when he passed to blindside winger Zenovic who joined the line creating confusion in the defence and when caught, Wong Kee was on hand to complete the move and score by the posts.
Replacement flyhalf Ben Harris made sure of the extra points and Hong Kong led by two, a lead they grimly held for the five minutes to the end of the match. From villain to hero is a path Wong Kee has travelled on so many occasions in the domestic league. This time, it gave Hong Kong a fortunate victory.
'We made it a lot harder than we had to. But I'm very happy that we finished with a win. This will set us up good going into the quadrangular tournament,'' said relieved Hong Kong captain Lachlin Miller.
'At the end of the day we showed a lot of character. For a lot of the guys, this was their first game in a long time and to get through 80 minutes of international rugby with a win is very creditable,'' said head coach Chris Roden.