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The explosion in popularity of sevens rugby in the region is helping to close the gap between Asian teams and the sport's power nations, based on the showings by Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea yesterday.

Japan were close to a sensational upset when they went within seconds of humbling New Zealand. Later they responded to the disappointment with a 50-0 drubbing of Singapore.

South Korea were impressive in their 19-19 draw against France, before overwhelming Sri Lanka 45-5, and Taiwan made up for disappointing results against Argentina and Samoa by beating Italy 19-17.

Japan and South Korea have qualified for the second-tier plate competition, and Taiwan will compete in the bowl. Korea will clash with France a second time, Japan play Portugal, while Taiwan face Madagascar.

The Koreans' best performance at the Hong Kong Sevens was in 1992 when they reached the cup semi-finals.

'Rugby is getting stronger in Asia, because there are so many quality sevens competitions,' said Korea coach Moon Young-chan.

'Many teams want to join the Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, and Singapore sevens. It's valuable experience. The unions are willing to spend more money on the development of the game and send teams to these tournaments.'

Japan's best performance in Hong Kong was in 1998 when they won the plate, beating Scotland in the final. In 1999, they celebrated victories over South Africa and Samoa.

'Rugby in Japan is getting better and better,' said team manager Harukazu Uchida. 'Now we play more sevens rugby than before. This is definitely helping to develop the game.'

The win over Singapore has given the team a boost and they are now determined to take home the plate.

'This team is good enough to go to the final,' said Uchida. 'The New Zealand game has given us a lot of confidence.'

Japan coach Akihiko Takai said the players  believed they could beat New Zealand, but may have cracked when the opportunity arose.

'We always think we can win, but realistically the chance of winning against New Zealand was slim,' he said. 'We thought we might do it, but I think the pressure got to us. The support is fantastic, we always get good support here.'

Korea will be relishing the chance to play France again, after letting a 19-12 lead slip yesterday. France forward Vincent Roux thought he had won the game with an injury time try, but it was disallowed for a double movement.



Asian powers show they've come of age and can match the big guns