Nine-try Hong Kong crush Singapore to capture Asia’s runners-up spot
‘Perfect’ regional champions Kazakhstan stay undefeated and unbowed with 49-17 romp over Japan
Kazakhstan retained their Asian Women’s Rugby Championship crown with a 49-17 victory over Japan, but it was the tournament hosts who raised the loudest cheer at Aberdeen Sports Ground on Saturday.
Fourth seeds Hong Kong had started the four-nation contest as the team “least likely to succeed”, but a comprehensive 53-5 demolition of Singapore in their final match earned them the regional runners-up spot.
It also left them wondering what might have been had they started the tournament the way they finished it.
This tournament has given us a lot of confidence and we now see ourselves capable of being Asia’s number one in the future
In the end a narrow opening loss to Kazakhstan (13-10) prevented Hong Kong from finishing as the top women’s fifteens side in Asia, despite them rebounding mid-week with a determined 15-14 win against second seeds Japan.
“We are getting closer to where we want to be, but as a coach you always want more from the players,” said Hong Kong coach Chris Garvey.
“Overall I’m very pleased. If we are being honest with ourselves we never thought we would get anything out of the Kazakhstan match and we thought the Japan match would be extremely tough, but the girls have surpassed their own expectations.
“We set out to get third place but finished runners-up, which is fantastic.”
Hong Kong captain Christy Cheng Ka-chi agreed with her coach. “This tournament has given us a lot of confidence and we now see ourselves capable of being Asia’s number one in the future,” she said.