At the picturesque Racecourse International Rugby Stadium in Colombo, the Hong Kong U19 side defeated the Junior Tuskers 37-8.
Paul Altier, Hong Kong’s first five opened the scoring for the visitors with a try in the 7th minute to steady the Hong Kong nerves and converted to give Hong Kong an early 7-0 lead.
Not to be outdone, the junior tuskers muscled their opponents in their first scrum causing a repetition of penalties against Hong Kong which allowed Chamod Fernando to kick Sri Lanka’s first points and narrowing the lead to 7-3.
And the opportunity to put more pressure on the visitors following the yellow card infringement to Hong Kong flanker, Gregor Ramage failed to materialise as the Hong Kong back line kept ball in hand moving the larger Sri Lankan forward pack from side to side and Alex Nisbet and Marcus Ramage scored a couple of scintillating tries to extend Hong Kong’s lead to 17-3, despite being a man short.
And Chong Shun Hong capped off a great half for the visitors as he scored on the stroke of half time to give Hong Kong a healthy 22-3 lead.
Strong words at half time from the junior tuskers management saw Disanayake score early in the second half to give the home crowd a glimmer of hope. But a yellow card for repeated offsides two minutes after their try saw Madushanka sent to the bin and the floodgates opened as Hong Kong’s Gregor Ramage, Marcus Ramage and Jay Cooke scored in quick succession to push the lead out to 37-8.
The return leg will now move to Hong Kong Football Club next Saturday where the two teams will battle it out again for the right to be crowned Asian champion for 2017.
Asia Rugby U19 Championships 2017
World Rugby trophy Qualifier
#ARu19
10th and 16th December
Hong Kong , Sri Lanka
