South Korea out to avenge loss; HSBC Asian Five Nations makes first visit to Singapore
South Korea hosts Hong Kong tomorrow (May 9) as the battle for second place honours in the HSBC Asian Five Nations (A5N) heats up. In Saturday’s other match, Singapore gets its first taste of A5N rugby as the tournament comes to the Lion City for a vital home clash against Kazakhstan.
South Korean head coach Park Ki Haeng has called for his team to bounce back strongly in the third week of the championship. A shock defeat at the hands of Kazakhstan last weekend has left Korea determined to erase the memories of that loss while throwing the elite Top 5 competition wide open.
“This was a wake-up call for the Hong Kong match,” Park said. “We will not make the same mistakes we did against Kazakhstan and I promise you that the Korean team will be at their best on Saturday.”
Defending champions Japan – who have a bye this weekend – are the only unbeaten team in the competition. But the race for second place was thrown wide open with Kazakhstan’s thrilling 30-27 victory over heavily fancied Korea in Almaty after fullback Maxim Lifontov knocked over the winning penalty late in the match.
“We made too many errors against Kazakhstan and our defence was poor. The forwards were not aggressive enough and didn’t tackle well. But we have addressed these lapses and will be ready for Hong Kong,” warned Park.
Under new coach Dai Rees Hong Kong began their 2009 campaign with a 59-6 loss to Japan at home last Saturday. They travel to Seoul for Saturday’s showdown at the Incheon Munhak Stadium well aware that the hosts will be doubly motivated after the shock loss to Kazakhstan.
“We are looking forward to the challenge the Koreans present,” said Rees. “They will be wounded after last week and it is going to be tough, but performance is the key to getting a result.”
Rees, formerly an assistant coach with the Welsh Gwent Dragons, has resisted the temptation of making too many changes and will field the same forward pack against Korea, but there are two changes in the backs. Powerful inside centre Simon Hempel is forced to miss the game due to his wife expecting their first child this weekend and winger Sebastian Perkins makes way for Adam Raby.
“We had a very positive start to the A5N and the Japan game has given us a marker on our relative strengths and weaknesses,” Rees said.
“While I was pleased with some of the play, a 20 minute period either side of half-time led to 45 points being scored. This was largely down to fatigue which affected both a breakdown in concentration and skill levels,” Rees said.
Korea defeated Hong Kong 50-24 last year and will be aiming for the same explosive start that saw them run up a 24-0 lead in the opening 13 minutes of the game last year at King’s Park in Hong Kong.
“Korea will present a huge challenge,” said veteran Hong Kong flanker Nigel Clarke. “But we can win and that is our aim.”
In Saturday’s other game, high-flying Kazakhstan are away to Singapore who face a tough task trying to stay in the top division which next year will double as the Asian qualifiers for the 2011 World Cup.
Singapore coach Danny Tauroa said, “All along we have been targeting this match as our best chance to stay up in this competition. Kazakhstan beating Korea has changed things a bit but we are using that as motivation. That’s the kind of tournament we’re in that the number four side can beat number two, so there’s no reason why we can’t beat Kazakhstan.”
Kazakhstan return a nearly unchanged side from last weekend’s win but are without the tournament’s co-top try scorer Anton Rudoy who is on duty with his professional club in Russia. Rudoy notched all three of his side’s tries in Almaty last weekend, while Lifontov produced three penalties and three conversions as the pair accounted for all of Kazakhstan’s 30 points against Korea.
The burden this weekend will again fall on the boot of Lifontov and the leadership of captain Timur Mashurov whose match-up against his opposing No 8 and fellow captain Ben Wheeler promises to be one of the most mouth-watering positional battles the tournament will see this year.
Kazakhstan assistant coach Alexandr Stalmohovich said that despite the emotion of the win over Korea the team is focused on this weekend’s match.
“We expect a hard game as Singapore will be at home and will be fighting to remain in the Top 5. After the Korea match, we told the players that we can now demand respect and teams will know that we are a force to be reckoned with in Asian rugby. But with this comes the need to respect our opposition and prepare to be challenged in every match and that starts this weekend.”
The narrow margin of defeat in Almaty saw Korea take its second bonus point (for a loss within seven points) to bring them to seven on the table behind Japan’s perfect record of 12 (five points for each win and two bonus points for scoring four or more tries in each match played). Kazakhstan is currently in third place on the table with five, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore who have not yet posted any points. Last year Kazakhstan had to wait until the final week of the competition to notch its first win and are gelling nicely as the competition progresses.
The matches this weekend kick off at 14.00 in Incheon and at 17.00 in Singapore. The Singapore v Kazakhstan match will be shown on STAR SPORTS at 19.30 on Monday in Hong Kong and Tuesday evening in the rest of Asia (check local listings).
As part of the HSBC Asian Five Nations, Singapore is hosting a day of rugby at the Yio Chu Kang stadium starting with a women’s sevens match between NUS and Blacks at 2.00pm, followed by the HSBC Asian Five Nations Drop Goal Competition for a chance to win two HSBC travel packages to the first British & Irish Lions Tour test match against South Africa on June 20, 2009 in Durban. At 2.30pm the Singapore Legends will play against the Singapore Cricket Club Growlers followed by an Under 8/9 mini rugby match between the Centaurs and Tanglin at 3.45pm.
Text and image courtesy: Sean Moore
This article is also available in the following Country/s. South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong
