Japan Wrests HSBC Asian Sevens Series Crown Back from Hong Kong

Japan wrested the Asian crown back from Hong Kong with a gutsy 24-19 victory to win the HSBC Asian Sevens Series in Singapore on Sunday.

A superb second-half fight back from Japan denied Hong Kong a second successive title as the HSBC Asian Sevens Series came to a thrilling end with the archrivals battling it out for the fourth time in the Cup finale.

Hong Kong led 19-5 at the break and seemed on course to defend their title but as has happened so many times this season Japan hit back strongly to run in three unanswered tries from Masaki Watanabe, Ozawa’s second and Tokiro Harada - taking the wind out of Hong Kong’s sails.

An elated Japan captain Katsuyuki Sakai described his team’s courageous cup win saying, “When you put on the national jersey of Japan there is a responsibility to leave everything you have on the pitch. I am very proud of the team that we stayed with it even being down a few tries and were able to come back for the victory.”

Dai Rees - Click to Enlarge (more pics)

Proud but disappointed Hong Kong coach Dai Rees was clear-eyed after the loss saying, “I can’t find fault with the performance of my guys. They gave it their all but Japan lifted their game magnificently in the second half and we could do nothing about it.”

A couple of crucial turnovers, with Japan counter-rucking brilliantly at the breakdown led to the quick tries and it piled the pressure on Hong Kong who lost skipper Jamie Hood to a niggling hamstring injury in the second-half.

Boosted by a handful of players from the professional Top League for this weekend’s Series finale, Japan opened the match with a try to Dai Ozawa. But Hong Kong ruled the rest of the first half with influential forward Lee Jones leading the way by scoring his side’s first try and then creating another for Rowan Varty.

Trailing 12-5 Japan lost Jamie Henry to the sin-bin just before the break and Hong Kong capitalised with Varty collecting his second try to extend the lead to 19-5.

“We knew they would come back strongly and our plan was to hang on to possession, unfortunately they turned us over on a couple of occasions in contact situations. But I’m proud of what this group of guys have done and the future looks bright for Hong Kong,” said Rees.

Japan won the opening two legs in Malaysia and Thailand and with their win in the fourth and final leg in Singapore ended with 47 points in the overall standings, two points in front of Hong Kong who only managed to win the India Sevens in Mumbai.

Japan booked their berth in the finals with wins over Malaysia (41-5) in the quarterfinals and then getting past China (26-0) in the semis. The Japanese were hardly stretched and did jut enough in both games to ensure that they would be rested for their fourth final of the series.

It was the same story with Hong Kong who first disposed of the Philippines (43-0) before entering the Cup final with another accomplished victory over South Korea (35-5).

A first-half hat trick from Rowan Varty was more than enough to settle the result in the quarterfinals against the Philippines. Varty was on fire as he scored three of the first four tries, the other scored by Nick Hewson, to give Hong Kong a 24-0 lead at the break. Ben Rimene crossed over soon after resumption to take his points’ tally past the century mark in the series and two more tries from Anthony Haynes and Max Woodward rounded off a convincing victory.

It was more of the same against Korea with Hong Kong running in five tries, and leading 21-0 at halftime to amble through into the final. Teenage star Raef Morrison grabbed a hat trick while skipper Jamie Hood bagged a brace as Hong Kong looked ominous.

The biggest shock of the tournament occurred in the Cup quarterfinals when the much-fancied Sri Lankans were knocked over by China losing 17-12. The resurgent Chinese went on to finish third, their highest-placing this season, after defeating South Korea 33-14 in the third place play-off.

Sri Lanka, one of the most-improved teams this season couldn’t conjure up another great escape as they had done in the pool competition on Saturday against the Philippines, when trailing 12-15 with the clock running down, skipper Fazil Marija ran the length of the field to score the winning try enabling his side to get out of jail. Despite taking a 12-0 lead in the first half of the quarter-final, Sri Lanka were left stunned as China fought back superbly to win through to their first Cup semi-final this season against Japan.

Sri Lanka put aside their disappointment of missing out on reaching the last four for the first time in the series by winning the Plate championship, knocking out Malaysia 21-14 in the semi-finals and then hammering Chinese-Taipei 38-0 in the final. The Plate win ensured that Sri Lanka would finish third in the overall standings.

The Bowl was won by Thailand who defeated hosts Singapore 18-5.