Japan won the first leg of the HSBC Asian Sevens Series in Malaysia when they held on to register a tense 14-10 victory over Hong Kong in the Cup final on Sunday.
Sri Lanka finished in third place overall, while hosts Malaysia claimed the Plate (5th place) and Kazakhstan claimed the Bowl (9th place).
Japan scored a breakaway try with inspirational debutant Lomano Lemeki finding the crucial gap with the seconds counting down in the low-scoring finale against their arch-rivals Hong Kong - who had robbed them of their Asian sevens crown last season.
Hong Kong was reduced to six men at the end after captain and flyhalf Jamie Hood was shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on. His absence proved crucial as he was the missing link in an attacking Hong Kong lineout resulting in Japan turning over possession for Lemeki to break through.
“Our fitness proved the difference in the end,” said jubilant Japanese skipper Lote Tuqiri. “We had a strong defence and despite fielding a young team, the guys all stood up and were counted.”
Lemeki provided the cutting edge for Japan. A brilliant off-load despite the attention of two defenders led to Japan’s first try.
Hong Kong struck back either side of the break with tries from Tom McQueen and Ben Rimene before Japan pulled the rug from under their feet in the dying seconds.
“This is the same old story,” said Hong Kong coach Alex Gibbs. “We have been in this same situation – down to six men and losing at the death – against Japan on too many occasions in the past.
“But the positives are that we blooded a number of new faces and this will bode well for the future. Our goal was to reach the final and we have done that,” Gibbs added.
Hong Kong fielded a relatively inexperienced team at the first leg of the Asian Sevens Series with the bulk of the main squad on duty at the China National Games in Shenyang.
Japan had to ward off a tough challenge from South Korea in the semi-final, coming back from a 7-0 halftime deficit to run in three unconverted tries and win 15-7.
Lemeki, representing Japan for the first time, was the difference between the two sides in the second half with his injection of pace and purposeful running creating problems for the Koreans.
Lemeki, coming on as a replacement at the start of the second period, settled Japan’s nerves when he immediately touched down under the posts. But he fluffed his left-footed conversion for Japan to trail 5-7.
Soon after, Japan went one man down when Lemeki was sin-binned for a high stiff-arm tackle. Korea failed to make the most of the man advantage and from the subsequent penalty kicked long and chased instead of keeping ball in hand and trying to create space.
Japan made the most of the tactical blunder and accepted possession gratefully and turned it into a try to take the lead for the first time in the match.
A late third try wrapped up the result for Japan who had earlier hammered Thailand 49-0 in the quarterfinals.
Hong Kong eased past Chinese-Taipei and Sri Lanka in the quarter-finals and semifinals respectively to book their berth in the Cup final.
A brace from fly-half Jamie Hood and one each from Jonny Rees and Dave Whiteford lifted Hong Kong to an easy 26-7 victory over Chinese-Taipei.
Sri Lanka presented a more formidable challenge after a thunderstorm had suspended play for more than an hour and left the Petaling Jaya Stadium pitch waterlogged.
Hong Kong trailed Sri Lanka 7-12 at the break but Raef Morrison, Lee Jones and Dennis Chang added tries to the solitary effort by Tom McQueen in the first half as the defending Asian champions came back strongly to win 29-12.
Sri Lanka’s tries were scored by skipper Fazil Marija and scrumhalf Srinath Sooriyabandara.
Sri Lanka who had earlier scored a convincing 29-10 win over hosts Malaysia in the quarterfinals to reach the last four lost to South Korea 15-10 in sudden death extra-time in the third place play-off.
Malaysia won the Plate final (to be placed fifth) with a 10-0 victory over Thailand.
The Bowl silverware was won by Kazakhstan who defeated Singapore 15-0 to finish in ninth place.
United Arab Emirates, fielding a full Emirati squad for the first time ever, finished bottom of the 12-team competition losing 41-0 to China in the play-off match for 11th place.
Hong Kong’s Tom McQueen finished as the top try scorer with seven tries and 35 points and joint top-points scorer with South Korea’s Oh Youn Hyung (35 pts, 3 tries, 10 conversions).
Lomano Lemeki was the Tournament Most Valuable Player and finished third in the scoring stakes with 32 from six tries and one conversion.
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Japan win opening leg of Asian Sevens Series
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