Salom Yiu scores late try as Hong Kong beat South Korea 38-37 in Incheon

A try in extra-time by Salom Yiu Kam-shing helped Hong Kong squeeze to a 38-37 victory over 13-man South Korea in Incheon on Saturday and keep alive their hopes of finishing second in the Asia Rugby Championship.

South Korea can be forgiven for thinking they were robbed of victory as Hong Kong came back from a 29-12 deficit to steal the last-gasp victory, scoring four tries in the final quarter of a dramatic encounter.

Hong Kong had to work hard for it though, not helped by errors that almost gifted the match to the hosts. But the odds were stacked in Hong Kong's favour after Korea went down to 14 men 10 minutes into the second half, when their tighthead prop was shown the red card for a shoulder charge on John Aikman, who was forced to retire with a bad knee.

But Hong Kong failed to make the most of their one-man advantage as they trailed 19-12 at the break and then fell further behind, 32-17, and again 37-24 before the comeback gained momentum. Captain Nick Hewson and then Yiu crossed over in the last five minutes with their opponents losing another player to the sin-bin.

"We showed fantastic courage and a lot of character to come back," said head coach Andy Hall. "But we had ourselves to blame for digging ourselves into a hole. We made too many individual errors, but it was great to see the way the guys kept fighting."

Yiu, whose defence looked suspect in the first-leg loss to Korea (33-26), showed he has a nose for the try-line as he bookended Hong Kong's six tries.