HONG KONG (AFP) — Hong Kong beat Kazakhstan 23-17 in the Asian Five Nations tournament Saturday, keeping up the pressure on early pacesetters Japan.
The home side ran in three tries to two in hot conditions in the clash amid the city's skyscrapers.
Hong Kong coach John Walters said he was pleased with his side's start to the match.
"We kept the pressure on until we got points so I was pretty happy."
He said the performance was an improvement on last week's win against the Arabian Gulf.
"We used the ball a little bit better. We created probably the same amount of opportunities today but we took a few more."
Kazakhstan coach Valeriy Popov said it was an exciting match for the crowd and Hong Kong played well. "However, the quality of the game from our side leaves much to be desired," he added.
After trailing 13-3 at the end of the first half, the physically imposing Kazakhstan enjoyed early possession in the second half and made their territorial domination count in the ninth minute with a converted try by Maxim Lifontov to pull the score back to 13-10.
But Hong Kong hit back with tries for Simon Hempel and Jon Elliot to stretch the lead to 23-10.
With time running out for Kazakhstan, skipper Timur Mashurov was sin-binned and despite a late converted try by substitute Ivan Ossikovskiy, Hong Kong won by six points.
In a scrappy first half, Hong Kong opened the scoring with a Justin Temara penalty in the 13th minute but the visitors pulled level with a penalty by Lifontov in the 27th minute.
Hong Kong made late pressure count following the sin-binning of Akhmetzhan Baratov, Pete Spizzirri going over to score a converted try to add to an earlier Temara penalty.
In the earlier game Saturday, Japan trounced the Arabian Gulf 114-6 for their second win in two matches.
Hong Kong beat the Arabian Gulf 20-12 in Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates in their first match of the inaugural competition last week.
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