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.
“It is tough coming into a Test when we have only been training among ourselves,” Douglas said.
Hong Kong’s competitive famine is about to give way to a feast, with a likely ARC title decider against South Korea scheduled a fortnight after next week’s match in Malaysia. Next month, Hong Kong play Chile, Paraguay, and Brazil during a South American tour.
The current ring rust was evident against UAE, however. Ben Axten-Burrett’s pass was intercepted by the powerful Emosi Vecenaua, who dashed 60 metres to give UAE the advantage.
“We created the space … but the pass selection wasn’t good enough,” Douglas said. “For the previous two minutes, we had been poor, and made mistakes in our own quarter, so you get what you deserve.”
The 36 places separating the teams in the world rankings ultimately showed.
UAE quickly fatigued, and despite battling gamely could not prevent John McCormick-Houston, Harry Laidler, twice, and Tommy Hill scoring before half-time.
Hill, whose boot delivered 12 points, celebrated his second try with a swallow dive. And the home side finished with six different try scorers, after Paul Altier, Alex Post and Charles Higson-Smith all crossed before full-time.
“We know mentally we can stay in games,” Douglas said. “I was never concerned, more frustrated in our own errors. I have 100 per cent faith in these boys, they take pride in the jersey, and want to do really well.”
