Japan claimed an impressive second title of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series in Korea, beating Hong Kong 28-19 in the final.
Naoki Motomura scored his fifth try of the tournament to get Japan off to a flying start, and Kameli Soejima once again excelled in a big final.
Soejima scored either side of half-time with his ninth and 10th tries of the series after Max Woodward had drawn the scores level at 7-7 before Motomura added his second with a lovely run through the defence. Jamie Hood and Kane Boucaut added two tries for Hong Kong but it was too little too late.
Having lost out to Hong Kong for a gold medal in the final of the Asian Games, Japan have now recorded two successive final victories over their Asian opponents.
The win extends their lead at the top of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series standings with all eyes now turning to the third and final round in Sri Lanka on October 13-14.
“We are definitely happy,” said Japan captain Seojima. “We know that Hong Kong would come back after two weeks ago but we just tried to settle in early and that set the pace for us.
“The game plan was to catch them off guard and let the ball do the job. We now look ahead to Colombo and need to keep improving our mistakes.”
In the semi finals Motomura continued his impressive tournament as he scored twice in an enthralling 33-24 win over hosts Korea before Cado Lee scored a hat-trick as Hong Kong beat China 47-0 to set up a repeat of the first round final in Hong Kong.
Elsewhere hosts Korea finished fourth in their home tournament as they lost 31-12 to China Zhang Chao scored twice while the Philippines celebrated finishing fifth in some style as they came back from two scores behind to snatch a 19-17 win over the Sri Lanka Tuskers.
In the day’s opening matches Japan beat China 26-14 to finish the pool stages with a 100% record alongside Hong Kong who proved too strong for Chinese Taipei winning 73-0 including a hat-trick from Max Denmark.
Final
Japan 28-19 Hong Kong
Third place
Korea 12-31 China
Semi-finals
Japan 33-24 Korea
China 0-47 Hong Kong
Plate final
Sri Lanka 17-19 Philippines
7th/8th
Malaysia 24-29 Chinese Taipei
Asia Rugby Sevens Series Links
#AR7s – Hong Kong 2018 Korea 2018 Sri Lanka 2018
#ARW7s – Hong Kong 2018 Korea 2018 – Sri Lanka 2018
