Hong Kong Powers Past UAE in HSBC A5N Top 5 Opener

Hong Kong, powered by a lethal backline, fired a clear warning to their rivals in the HSBC Asian Five Nations Top 5 competition after they swept to a convincing 85-10 victory over the United Arab Emirates in Dubai on Friday.

Winger Rowan Varty grabbed four tries while inside centre Ally Maclay scored a hat-trick as the rampaging Hong Kong three-quarters accounted for a dozen of the 14 tries the visitors helped themselves to as they got their campaign off to a sound start.

Hong Kong, runners-up last year, has set their sights on upsetting the Asian apple cart by toppling perennial champions Japan. But despite the glut of tries, Hong Kong senior coach Leigh Jones warned that his side would have to step it up against South Korea, Japan and Kazakhstan.

“The scoreline flattered us. We have plenty of work to do,” said Jones. “But this win will give us confidence as we look ahead to South Korea next week.”

It was the biggest win by Hong Kong in the history of the HSBC Asian Five Nations, bettering last season’s 62-3 victory over the same opponents.

While Varty and Maclay collected half of the 14 tries between them, second-half substitute Alex McQueen also came to the party, scoring a brace. Keith Robertson, Salom Yiu Kam-shing and Lee Jones also made merry. The only two tries scored by the forwards were by No 8 Pale Tauti and substitute Rory Hussey.

“We have a gifted set of backs and we knew they would be dangerous. This is the type of rugby we want to play and it was great to see Rowan score four tries,” Jones said.

Left winger Varty, captain of the national sevens team, set the ball rolling for Hong Kong when he grabbed a brace of tries inside the opening five minutes of the first half for the visitors to strike a psychological blow.

The first score was the outcome of some good work from inside centre Lee Jones who charged down a hasty clearance before popping a pass to flyhalf Keith Robertson who then put Varty in the clear.

Varty showed his superb finishing skills a couple of minutes later receiving a pass from fullback Ross Armour to stroll over for a try. Robertson then got into the act to complete a move started by winger Salom Yiu Kam-shing, who made a strong break down the right touchline.

The rest of the first half belonged to outside centre Ally Maclay as he collected a hat-trick of tries in 10 minutes. The 110-kilogram centre was unstoppable as Hong Kong piled on the points rushing to a 39-3 lead with the home team’s only answer being a penalty from flyhalf Andrew Russell, brother of former Springbok Brent.

UAE skipper and No.8 Alistair Thompson finally gave the home team something to smile about just before the break when from a five-metre scrum he barged over close to the posts despite the close attentions of two defenders.

UAE trailed 39-10 at halftime and would have hoped the try by Thompson would be just what they needed to spark a fightback. But Hong Kong soon resumed normal service, running in a further eight tries from all parts of the park.

Jones used his full bench, giving all 22 players in the squad a chance to show what they had.

“It was a good effort individually by the players but as far as team effort was concerned, we were lacking. This is something we will have to work on. We need to improve everywhere,” Jones added.

UAE Coach Duncan Hall commented on the loss saying, “Hong Kong are a very very good team. I don’t think we underestimated them but you can’t coach speed. They were able to get that ball wide and we don’t have that.”

UAE captain Alistair Thompson said, “That’s a proven team in Hong Kong we played today while Japan may be a bit unsettled. They are building towards the Rugby World Cup in 2015 so it will be an interesting game to see how they go against each other. As for us, we have to move on now. It wasn’t a perfect performance by any means but we showed a lot of improvement from the last time we played Hong Kong in December. We have another test next week and the games just seem to get harder.”

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