Hong Kong find the going tough against powerful Russia

The Russian Bear was not only powerful, it showed it can move nimbly as well, running in three tries in a comfortable 31-10 victory over Hong Kong at King's Park on Saturday.

If not for a last act of defiance from winger Rowan Varty, whose solitary try gave the home fans something to cheer about, Hong Kong would have had few bright moments to mull over as they look to Saturday's second test.

All it took was one moment of inspiration from substitute scrum-half Charles Cheung Ho-ning to create a rare opportunity for Hong Kong. It came late in the game with Hong Kong trailing 26-3 and their opponents down to 14 men after winger Andrei Ostrokov had been sin-binned.

Russia lost a line-out just inside their own half and Cheung was quick on the uptake, opting to use the blindside realising that the Russian right winger was off the field. Varty did the rest.

"I just saw a bit of a gap and went for it. It was a great pass from Charles," said Varty. "Hopefully we can improve on this for next Saturday. That try certainly gave me a lot of confidence."

Yes, Hong Kong will need to look at the positives and draw some confidence against a team who were superior up front and used that to good advantage.