Hong Kong’s men and women crash out at World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series
- City’s two sides suffer disappointing quarter-final exits in Stellenbosch, South Africa on Saturday
- Men go down 33-12 to Tonga in the last eight, while women are thrashed 40-5 by Belgium
Hong Kong’s men and women suffered disappointing quarter-final exits at the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series in Stellenbosch, South Africa on Saturday.
Having topped pool C earlier in the day, the city’s men went down 33-12 to Tonga in the last eight, in a rematch of last week’s quarter-final, where they lost 33-0, and now face a placement match on Sunday.
Kyren Taumoefolau scored a hat-trick for Tonga, with John Tapueluelu and Semisi Maasi getting in on the act, while Ariel Pakalani added three conversions.
Liam Herbert and Harry Sayers scored the tries for Hong Kong, who were without their captain and tournament record scorer Russell Webb, who suffered a laceration to his knee earlier on Saturday.
“Frustrating,” Hong Kong’s Alex McQueen said after the match.
“We didn’t start well, went down a few tries early, and then it was always going to be tough against a physical team like Tonga. Overall, we are disappointed because we thought we could go further in the Series then we did. It has been a busy month for us with our fourth tournament in five weekends, so there was some fatigue coming in, but we had some really good preparations, so it is very frustrating.”
Hong Kong’s men had carved out a clinical 17-0 victory against Belgium in their final pool game, with Hugo Stiles, Webb, and Seb Brien all touching down to set up the clash against Tonga.
