Hong Kong's dream of making it to their first-ever Rugby World Cup finals suffered a big blow on Sunday but there is still hope for the territory to board the bus to Japan. Despite being the top seeds in the tournament's 2019 repechage, Hong Kong received a big jolt as they were beaten by unfancied Germany, the lowest ranked team in the competition, at the Stade Delort in Marseille on Sunday.
The 26-9 defeat has certainly narrowed Hong Kong's chances of making it to the final as only one team from the repechage, also featuring Canada and Kenya, will get the chance to secure the 20th and final qualifier for the Web Ellis trophy and a place alongside defending champions New Zealand, South Africa, Italy and Namibia in Pool B in Japan next year.
A disappointed Hong Kong captain James Cunningham seemed to be taking this opening game setback as a learning experience and he sounded positive.
“We can't keep dwelling on this game,” Cunningham commented after the Germany game. "We have got to work hard for these next two games and see what happens with the other results."
Hong Kong players in action against Germany in the first game of Rugby World Cup repechage. /Photo Courtesy: World Rugby
Incidentally, Hong Kong are the only one of the four teams to have been involved in a repechage before, having lost to Uruguay in the qualification process for RWC 2015, but they are playing in a round-robin format for the first time.
In order to launch their bid to qualify for the World Cup, the Hong Kong side has played warm-up matches against the Dragons Development side and Crawshays during a camp in Wales. Only 15 months ago, the Hong Kong women created history by playing at Women's Rugby World Cup 2017 in Ireland. The men's team is leaving no stone unturned to follow in their footsteps after first winning the Asia Rugby Championship 2018 and then beating the Cook Islands in a two-legged Asia/Oceania playoff.
The experienced players like hooker Ben Roberts, fly-half Ben Rimene, Jamie Hood and their most capped player in Nick Hewson, are desperate to grind it out against Kenya next Saturday as they are vying for a lifeline to stay afloat in the competition and keep their hopes alive. If the Asians, who are 21st in the world rankings, win against their African rivals, then they will play the biggest match in their rugby history on November 23 against a formidable Canada, who registered an impressive win over Kenya on Sunday.