Latest news with #BenAxtenBurrett
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong vow to grab Rugby World Cup spot and avoid repechage roller-coaster
Having the opportunity to qualify for a Rugby World Cup is not a new scenario for Hong Kong's men – being this close to the promised land is. Saturday's equation is frighteningly simple: beat South Korea in the final round of the Asia Rugby Emirates Men's Championship and they will be part of the 2027 tournament in Australia. It would be the first time the city's men had ever reached such heights, after the women did so in 2017. Given Hong Kong's utter domination of the competition since 2018, and their two emphatic victories this time around against the United Arab Emirates and Sri Lanka, they go into the game in Incheon as clear favourites, sitting first in the standings. Their hosts, in contrast, have been less than convincing in narrowly beating Sri Lanka in Colombo and conspiring to lose at home to the UAE. Ben Axten-Burrett (with ball) and his Hong Kong teammates during training. Photo: Jonathan Wong Still, just three points separate them from the top of the table, and the Koreans could yet snatch a qualifying berth that has had Hong Kong's name on it almost from the moment World Rugby expanded the global tournament to 24 teams and assigned Asia an extra spot. Defeat would not be the end; it would just send Hong Kong down a familiar road, to a third repechage tournament in seven years. It is a journey Ben Axten-Burrett has been on before and would happily avoid.
South China Morning Post
14-06-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Asia Rugby Championship: Douglas frustrated by Hong Kong's winning start to World Cup bid
Frustration is not the overriding emotion you would normally expect on the back of a convincing 43-10 win, but then Hong Kong head coach Andrew Douglas has exacting standards. The Kiwi watched his side ultimately cruise past the United Arab Emirates in their opening Asia Rugby Championship fixture at the Sevens Stadium in Dubai on Saturday, but was not exactly thrilled with how they put together a six-try performance. He had a point. A sloppy opening 10 minutes, which might generously have been attributed to being wound too tight, gave way to a display that was punctuated by poor handling, questionable decision-making and rushed passing. Mathew Worley's 47th-minute try, his side's third, included all those elements that so riled Douglas, and was only possible because of some ridiculous juggling by Ben Axten-Burrett, who in his haste to collect a wild pass from Nathan De Thierry needed his head and an outstretched leg to prevent a knock-on. The centre's contortions confounded the UAE defence to the extent that all Worley had to do, once his teammate had sufficient control of the ball to pass it, was skip between a befuddled group of forwards and go in under the posts from 22 metres out. Hong Kong's Max Denmark scores his side's second try against the United Arab Emirates at the Sevens Stadium in Dubai in the Asia Rugby Championship. Photo: HKCR De Thierry's conversion made the score 27-10, ending any slim hopes the UAE may have harboured of a comeback.
