{"id":132303,"date":"2025-11-14T03:53:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T03:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/132303\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T03:53:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T03:53:14","slug":"hong-kong-rugby-team-hope-for-memorable-win-over-portugal-in-first-test-of-autumn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/132303\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong rugby team hope for \u2018memorable\u2019 win over Portugal in first Test of autumn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Hong Kong\u2019s rugby players have an opportunity to \u201cput themselves on the map\u201d this weekend with a \u201cmemorable\u201d win over Portugal, head coach Logan Asplin said on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The first official Test of the city\u2019s autumn, after warm-up games against Japan A and ACT Brumbies, pits them against a side ranked four places higher and who beat them convincingly in the 2023 World Cup repechage tournament three years ago.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But Portugal come into the match on the back of a humbling 26-8 loss at home to Uruguay last weekend, and with wind and rain predicted for Saturday\u2019s encounter in Lisbon, Asplin believes the home side could be there for the taking.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity for us that we\u2019ve talked this week about,\u201d Asplin said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got the ability to play a team that\u2019s ranked four spots above us and knock them over, and how that puts us on the map, how that makes us memorable. This is one we can really get after and target.\u201d<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Once again, Hong Kong have tweaked their starting line-up, returning to a familiar front row of Sumia Fameitau, Calum Scott and Zacceus Cinnamond.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Gregor McNeish will start at fly half for the game against Portugal. Photo: Elson Li\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ff30712d-64e2-4832-9ff8-ba03959794f1_1126e908.jpg\" title=\"Gregor McNeish will start at fly half for the game against Portugal. Photo: Elson Li\"\/>Gregor McNeish will start at fly half for the game against Portugal. Photo: Elson Li<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Harry Baron, Callum McFeat-Smith and Fazial Solomona Penesa provide cover on the bench, and Asplin said the selection reflected the belief that Portugal would \u201cnot be as confrontational a side as the Brumbies\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hong Kong\u2019s rugby players have an opportunity to \u201cput themselves on the map\u201d this weekend with a \u201cmemorable\u201d&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[82665,82658,82662,82663,82656,1120,82666,82655,82664,3448,85,46,1437,74811,82657,17673,82660,82654,125,82659,26983,82661],"class_list":["post-132303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-act-brumbies","tag-asplin","tag-ben-axten-burrett","tag-callum-mcfeat-smith","tag-calum-scott","tag-dubai","tag-dylan-mccann","tag-fazial-solomona-penesa","tag-harry-baron","tag-hong-kong","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-japan","tag-lisbon","tag-marcus-ramage","tag-portugal","tag-samuel-marques","tag-sumia-fameitau","tag-technology","tag-tom-hill","tag-uruguay","tag-zacceus-cinnamond"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}