Boots and all | Unbeaten Uruguay pose serious World Cup worry for Hong Kong
Only one team remain unbeaten in the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy and it isn’t Japan or Tonga, who contest Saturday’s final. It is Uruguay, whose performances over the past two weeks will have set off alarm bells among Hong Kong’s senior team management.
Only one team remain unbeaten in the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy (JWRT) and it isn’t Japan or Tonga, who contest Saturday’s final. It is Uruguay, whose performances over the past two weeks will have set off alarm bells among Hong Kong’s senior team management.
The South Americans entered the competition seeded sixth and were expected to be also-rans in a pool which included Canada (second seeds), Japan (third) and Namibia (seventh).
But Uruguay showed they are an all-round fine product, beginning the tournament with a courageous 33-28 victory over Japan before pulling off one of the shock results by holding Canada to an 18-18 draw.
Uruguay’s impressive run will bother Hong Kong’s senior team, who are likely to be heading to Montevideo later this year [as part of] the qualifying process for the 2015 World Cup
Uruguay rounded off the pool competition with a 16-13 win over Namibia and then watched anxiously, hoping Canada would do them a favour by beating Japan, allowing them to go through to the finals. But Japan’s slick backs made mincemeat of the Canadians.
So, how come a team who remained undefeated didn’t make it to the final? It was simply because Japan clinched four bonus points, the most by any team, to finish top of Pool B on 12 points.
Crucially, Japan scored the four tries needed for a bonus point in losing to Uruguay, but they also finished within seven points to earn another bonus point. These two points were the difference between finishing top and finishing as runners-up.
Uruguay’s impressive run will bother Hong Kong’s senior team, who are likely to be heading to Montevideo later this year to play in the preliminary repêchage match in the qualifying process for the 2015 World Cup in England.
Uruguay finished second best to the United States in the American qualifiers and will now meet the second-best team in Asia, where the regional qualifiers start this month with the Asian Five Nations Top Five competition.