Asia Rugby Championship: Hong Kong men off to flyer, but ‘frustrated’ coach demands improvement after scrappy display
- Hong Kong cruise past UAE despite poor start, face Malaysia and South Korea in remaining fixtures
- Head coach Andrew Douglas less than satisfied with scrappy performance in tournament opener
Head coach Andrew Douglas was “frustrated” with Hong Kong’s scrappy performance in their 52-5 Asia Rugby Championship (ARC) victory over debutants United Arab Emirates.
UAE capitalised on Hong Kong’s sluggish start to cross first after six minutes. The hosts delivered a sound response to that early blow, scoring eight tries and preventing UAE from getting back on the board.
Douglas, nevertheless, lamented his team’s “stop-start” display, and identified a number of areas to improve for Hong Kong’s second ARC game, in Malaysia next Saturday.
“I am frustrated … we tried to play with tempo, and get flow into the game, but a few things hindered us,” Douglas said. “Our own errors, our slow start, and the [wet and windy] conditions all had an influence.
“UAE had a lot of players go down, too, and that stopped our momentum. We will take the result, but we aim to be better. We have to cut down our error rate, create more flow, have greater tempo, and apply more pressure on teams.”
Hong Kong were playing their first Test rugby since a victory over Germany more than six months ago.
