HONG KONG—Japan won the 2017 Asian Women’s Rugby Championship with an emphatic 60 -19 victory over Hong Kong at Kings Park on Saturday evening. Japan beat Hong Kong 58-0 the week before in Japan, so victory was expected; but for Hong Kong it was another patchy performance, poor defense leaked tries and error-strewn ball-handling disrupted momentum, despite some promising individual performances, from Kelsie Bouttle (centre), captain Chow Mei Nam (lock) and the backrow of Christy Cheng, Chan Tsz Ching and Christine Gordon.
For both teams, it was their final match before the Women’s Rugby World Cup in Ireland in August. Japan and Hong Kong both will represent Asia. For Hong Kong, it is a remarkable achievement to be one of only twelve teams competing, but they face a huge gap between qualification and being competitive at the highest level.
Japan romped to victory over Hong Kong, outscoring Hong Kong ten tries to three: as the match progressed the Japanese team discipline and fitness increasingly exposed the fragility of the Hong Kong defense.
After 30 minutes Japan led 24-0 with four tries through Riho Kurigi (centre), Maki Takano (No.8), Aoi Mimura (lock) and Ai Tasaka (fullback). Tasaka and Mimura both produced scything runs through the Hong Kong defense to score impressive individual tries. Hong Kong managed to get on the scoreboard with lock Chow Mei Nam bustling over for a close range try, converted by winger Aggie Poon, narrowing the gap to 24-7. Yet Japan quickly replied with another try before half time, with Kurigi running through a porous Hong Kong defense for her second try, which she converted. The score at half time was 31-7 to Japan.
Hong Kong began the second half strongly, with winger Chong Ka Yan sneaking an opportunist try under the posts, making it 31-14. This prompted Japan to sharpen their game and they immediately replied with two tries: a second for Takano, then winger Honoka Tsutsumi collected a deft chip kick over the advancing Hong Kong defense, and extended the Japan lead to 43-14.
