{"id":207572,"date":"2025-10-12T10:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T10:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/207572\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T10:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T10:04:08","slug":"hong-kong-rugby-coach-pretty-happy-with-new-look-side-despite-narrow-loss-to-japan-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/207572\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong rugby coach \u2018pretty happy\u2019 with new-look side despite narrow loss to Japan club"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A much-changed Hong Kong slipped to a 28-21 defeat against Mazda Hiroshima Skyactivs on Saturday, with head coach Andrew Douglas \u201cpretty happy\u201d with what he saw from a side including six debutants.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Wing Dylan McCann, young scrum-half Eric Chui Wai-lap and forward Max Murphy all made a strong impression in Fukuoka, as did veteran lock Kyle Sullivan, whom Douglas singled out for his \u201coutstanding\u201d performance.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Tied 21-all at half-time, the home side, who play their rugby in League One, got the decisive score with an hour gone, and despite plenty of possession, Hong Kong could find no way through.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThere are some areas to improve on, obviously,\u201d Douglas said. \u201cOur goal-line defence, our line-out and our scrum were inconsistent, things we haven\u2019t worked on a lot in training to be fair, but there are enough positive signs there for us to say we are going to be OK.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cIt was even in the second half. We created a lot of line breaks, [but] we just couldn\u2019t finish them, which is unusual for us, it\u2019s a combination thing and an understanding of how we are going to play. That will come with more time together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Wing Guy Spanton (with ball) in training with the Hong Kong squad. Photo: Jonathan Wong\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/5ad70a42-b60c-4af9-9982-d0adcda9b6b8_4e4ab2b6.jpg\" title=\"Wing Guy Spanton (with ball) in training with the Hong Kong squad. Photo: Jonathan Wong\"\/>Wing Guy Spanton (with ball) in training with the Hong Kong squad. Photo: Jonathan Wong<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Nine weeks of pre-season meant Hong Kong were far better conditioned than in the past, and a team that bore little resemblance to the one that won the Asia Rugby Championship in July was better suited to the fast pace at which Japanese sides like to play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A much-changed Hong Kong slipped to a 28-21 defeat against Mazda Hiroshima Skyactivs on Saturday, with head coach&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[127126,108875,64,63,128324,128323,10340,54395,128322,53744,127124,128321,127123,760,85],"class_list":["post-207572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-andrew-douglas","tag-asia-rugby-championship","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dylan-mccann","tag-eric-chui-wai-lap","tag-hong-kong","tag-japanese","tag-kyle-sullivan","tag-league-one","tag-leriro-fukuoka","tag-max-murphy","tag-mazda-hiroshima-skyactivs","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}