Men’s Premier Asia Rugby Men’s Championship: Malaysia vs HK

The Hong Kong XVS rugby union side has travelled to Malaysia for their men’s Asia Rugby Men’s Championship game which takes places today, and both national sides have named strong squads.

Coaches Brad Mika (Malaysia) and Andy Hall (Hong Kong) will see their teams battle it out at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium, following last weeks closely fought HK win at home 30-24. The loss earned Malaysia their first point in the Championship, and they will look to test Hong Kong even more with home support.

Coach Mika said after the loss “I am very very proud of the boys……Our last two weeks against Korea we struggled to stick to the process but we saw that when you fall in love with the process it is surprising how far you can go. We spoke about belief and I am sure some of the boys surprised themselves with how far they could go, especially against the much higher ranked side like Hong Kong.”

Hong Kong has come in for some criticism over the money they have spent on their elite rugby programmes and failed RWC qualification process as well as some questions being raised about the lack of Chinese or Hong Kong-born players coming through the ranks to the national team.

If Hong Kong does win the game, they should effectively wrap up the championship today unless they lose by a large margin in their final home game vs South Korea.

Team Changes

Malaysia XVs rugby team

Malaysia has been forced into making one change with captain Dinvesvaran Krihsnan returning to his club in Japan and replaced by Timoci Vunimoku. Marc Le will has taken over the captaincy while MD Nur Ikqwan replaces MD Khairul Abdillah at scrum-half.

Hong Kong XVs rugby team

Hong Kong have made a number of changes. According to Asia Rugby website, there are 12 changes in total to the squad but HKRU says there are 9 players entering the match day 23 this week

Coach Hall said “We are in the fortunate position to be selecting from a position of strength now, with almost everyone healthy, which gives us choice in depth. We are picking a team that will give us a reaction to last Saturday. There has been a fair bit of mirror-looking this week and I think the players have acknowledged that the performance was unacceptable.

“We have drawn a line under it and moved on and the focus this week has been on the individual, individuals getting their individual roles right, which did not happen last week. Did they underestimate Malaysia? Probably they did, and they got what they deserved for that.”

Three players have retained their places in the team; Kyle Sullivan, Paul Altier and Callum McCullough. The national side is captained by Liam Slatem.

ARC Men’s Premier division results in 2019

• South Korea 52-14 Malaysia
• Malaysia 16-38 South Korea
• South Korea 10-47 Hong Kong
• Hong Kong 30-24 Malaysia
• Malaysia vs Hong Kong (22 June 2019)
• Hong Kong vs South Kore (29 June 2019)

The match will be streamed live on Asia Rugby’s Facebook page.

• Venue: Bukit Jalil National Stadium, Malaysia
• Date: Saturday 22nd June 2019

For more information on the Asia Rugby Championships read here as well as the weekends Men’s Division 3 ES which starts this weekend.