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The parity in Asian men’s sevens was on proud display after day one of the Men’s Rugby Sevens at the 2009 East Asian Games in Hong Kong.

The Women’s Rugby Sevens competition meanwhile is proving to be another coming out party for Rugby World Cup Sevens Bowl champions China who were undefeated on Day One, finishing with a points for and against record of 114 – nil.

In the men’s competition, Japan continue to be the in-form team but the Asian Sevens leaders were pushed to the limit in the day’s final match by Korea, Asia’s second best Sevens team, who themselves drew against China in their opening match.

Hosts Hong Kong nearly saw their dreams of a gold medal at home derailed by Chinese Taipei, who rebounded from two challenging losses earlier in the day. In all, it was an exciting day of world-class Rugby Sevens action played in front of a strong crowd of 8,500 at the Hong Stadium.

Despite, coming through with three crucial wins from today’s competition, Japan Men’s Sevens coach Wataru Murata was unhappy with his team’s defence after the Brave Blossoms conceded four tries in its three matches.
Japan opened its account with a 19-5 win over Chinese Taipei and kept their foot on the gas with a convincing 17-7 win over Hong Kong, Asia’s third ranked Sevens team. That result set up an enticing final day one match between the Asian one and two, Japan and Korea.

The teams did not disappoint either as Korea jumped out to a 12-0 lead at the half after tries from Kim Jong Su and Kim Won Yong and a conversion from Hong Jun Ki. As they regularly do, Japan maintained its composure in the second half and came back to win after two tries from substitute Shinichi Yokoyama and a third from Masuhiro Tsuiki. Hidefumi Yamamoto’s two conversions put the game out of reach at 19-12 and preserved Japan’s clean sheet for the day.

The loss to Japan may come back to haunt Korea after the preliminary stage as could Korea’s 12-12 draw against China, ranked number four in Asian Sevens in today’s opening match. In its second match of the day, Korea beat Guam 39-5.

The hometown heroes Hong Kong got off to a rocking start with a 31-7 win over Guam, punctuated by a hat-trick from Rowan Varty. Hong Kong’s high hopes were deflated a bit after its 17-7 loss to Japan and it left the hosts needing nothing less than perfection for the remainder of the tournament to reach the final.

That level of performance was hard to find in Hong Kong’s last match of the day against Chinese Taipei. In a tense encounter, the lead changed hands several times as the never-say-die Chinese Taipei seven jumped out to an early lead and held it for large parts of the match and deep into the second half.

With two losses, enough to derail hopes of a place on the medal rostrum, looming talismanic playmaker Keith Robertson helped keep Hong Kong’s medal chances alive, setting up a late try in the corner from winger Salom Yiu Kam Shing to edge Hong Kong ahead 20-17. Robertson then scored and converted his own try in the last minute to push Hong Kong through at 27-17 and keep their gold medal dream alive.

Hong Kong will now need back-to-back victories over Korea and China tomorrow to reach the gold medal match in the first ever East Asian Games to feature Rugby Sevens, and the first hosted in Hong Kong, one of the spiritual homes of the sevens code.

The men’s competition continues tomorrow with each team having two more preliminary round robin matches before proceeding to the finals starting with the fifth and sixth place playoff, the Bronze Medal match and of course the Gold Medal match which kicks off at 16.45 local time.

In the women’s competition, action will begin with Semi-Finals between China and Hong Kong and Japan and Guam at 12.36 and 12.58 respectively.

Day One results:
Men
Japan 19-5 Chinese Taipei
Korea 12-12 China
Hong Kong 31-7 Guam
China 42-5 Chinese Taipei
Japan 17-7 Hong Kong
Korea 39-5 Guam
Hong Kong 27-17 Chinese Taipei
China 42-7 Guam
Japan 19-12 Korea
Women
China 24-0 Japan
Guam 12-10 Hong Kong
Guam 0-50 Japan
China 44-0 Hong Kong
China 46-0 Guam
Hong Kong 5-7 Japan