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Alvin Sallay

It took almost an hour before Hong Kong realised they had it in themselves to defeat South Korea. 
But, by then, it was too late as the hosts edged a 36-34 win in the HSBC Asian Five Nations Championship yesterday.
What looked a one-sided game at the outset turned into a thriller. Trailing 31-3 at half-time, Hong Kong produced a second-half comeback of Lazarus-like proportions, and one which had the small crowd at the Incheon Sports Complex on the edge of their seats.
A hat-trick of tries from left-winger Adam Raby, and one each from right-winger Simon Smith and centre Ed Rolston buoyed hopes of a sensational victory. 
But sadly the second-half comeback fell just short, leaving a flat taste in the mouths of the players.
'It is hugely disappointing not to win,' said captain Jon Abel. 'It was just a matter of belief, but it took us 55 minutes to believe in ourselves.'
Substitute flyhalf Jonny Elliott could have given Hong Kong cause for celebration, but he had two difficult touchline conversions at the end, and missed both.
While proud at his side's never-say-die spirit, Hong Kong coach Dai Rees called for the team not to sell themselves short in the future by thinking that they were not as good as Korea. 
It was sound advice, especially with next year's HSBC A5N being the Asian qualifying round for the 2011 World Cup. The winner of the top five gets a direct entry, while the runner-up will go into a repechage.
'I'm very proud of the guys but what we must not do here is set our standards to accept losing to Korea,' said Rees, who has set his sights on laying the foundation for a credible assault on World Cup qualification.
In a repeat of last year, Korea stormed to a 24-0 lead in the first 17 minutes of play with two tries from No 8 Han Kun-kyu, centre Park Noh-hoon and flanker Youn Kwon-woo. Hong Kong flyhalf Kenzo Pannell knocked over a penalty, but another try from Shin Yong-chul right on half-ime put the home team 31-3 in front.
'At 24-3 I felt fairly comfortable, but when they went to 31-3, I thought it was a bridge too far, and as it turned out, it was,' Rees said. 'We played poorly in the first half. We let ourselves down in the first 30 minutes.' 
The initial trend was set when Korea kicked off. Flanker Nigel Clarke collected the kick and passed back to Pannell, who standing inside his 22, booted the ball out on the full. The subsequent Korean lineout from the mark, where Pannell made his mistake, ended in a try.
That error seemed to unnerve Hong Kong, who looked unsettled, and the home team made the most of it, running in tries from everywhere. With the lineout also not functioning - they lost four off their own throws - things got even worse and it all resulted in Hong Kong not even stepping into the Korean 22 in the first half.
With a handy lead, Korea made the mistake of looking ahead to the future - and the crucial game against Japan next week. 
Head coach Park Ki-haeng rung in the changes soon after half-time, replacing six of his players. He almost paid for his arrogance.
Losing two players to the sin-bin, both forwards who were infringing at the breakdown, didn't help either. 
Down to 14 men for most of the second half, it got worse when with all seven replacements used, centre Park Noh-hoon went down with a hamstring leaving only 13 on the field. 
And Hong Kong capitalised.
'It was not a good decision to change all our players early in the second half,' Park said.
'I was already thinking ahead to the Japan game next week and had decided to give all the players a go. But I thought when we led 31-3 at half-time that it would be enough.'
Hong Kong begged to differ. With Clarke, who put in another sterling display, leading from the front, Hong Kong fought back. Raby was on hand to finish off a multi-phase move begun by impressive centre Ed Rolston with No 8 Simon Leung assisting well.
Raby collected two more tries, finishing off superbly, while Smith showed he was also equal to the task, dancing his way down the right touchline for another try. 
Rolston deservingly also touched down as Hong Kong made a game of it and finished with two bonus points - their first in the competition.
In Singapore, high-flying Kazakhstan kept up the pressure on South Korea and Japan with a nail-biting 22-19 win over the hosts.



Lazarus-like comeback not good enough for brave HK