Hong Kong scrambled to a 25-12 victory over Tunisia yesterday in an ill-tempered match marred by an unprecedented four red cards - three for the visitors and one for home team hooker Wayne Whitney.
'We had to fight very hard for that,' said Hong Kong coach John Walters of the first meeting between the two at Football Club. 'We can expect a hot reception when we play them again on Saturday in Tunis.'
Hong Kong's points were all scored by flyhalf Kenzo Pannell, who knocked over six penalties and a conversion to tally 20 points.
The other five points came from a dubious penalty-try awarded by referee Steve Foley. Hong Kong failed to cross the Tunisian try line. Tunisia's points came from two lovely tries, the first by skipper and centre Amor Mazgar, who outpaced Hong Kong's cover defence, and the second a sizzling 80-metre counter-attack with winger Abbes Khrfani touching down under the posts.
The game was tantalisingly poised at 12-12 going into the last quarter when the action was overshadowed by the red cards. Tunisia were guilty of indiscipline, but they did not warrant having three red cards.
It wasn't Foley's finest 80 minutes. He shouldn't even have been on the pitch in the first place as yesterday's game was a test match sanctioned by the International Rugby Board. All test matches are supposed to have a neutral referee.
'It was a test match but at the same time a friendly,' said Hong Kong Rugby Football Union chairman Trevor Gregory.