Hong Kong China Narrowly Lose to USA in Nations Cup Thriller

rugbyasia247 Posted On November 9, 2026

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Hong Kong China Narrowly Lose to USA in Nations Cup Thriller

Hong Kong China will be rueing what might have been after being pipped by the USA Eagles 28-26 at Stade Marcel-Verchère, Bourg-en-Bresse, France, in a Test in which they led for more than half of the game – this is a USA team which beat Spain, Portugal and Zimbabwe in July and now remain undefeated.

Photo Credit: World Rugby / Getty Images

Head Coach Scott Lawrence said after the close win, “It was a frustrating game this evening, having so many entries, but we just needed the patience to convert them. We’ll take the feedback from today – on respecting the international game and being patient – on how we can convert our opportunities and be more consistent in our territory, pressure, and possession game.”

Flyhalf Nate De Thierry kicked off the 9th match between these two sides in cool but clear conditions at Paul Altier’s old club in France – unfortunately, he missed out on the game due to a niggle.

Early lineout wobbles for Hong Kong China continued throughout the match, but the USA didn’t have much more success at that part of the set piece, although the infuriating style of officiating disrupted the set piece for both sides for 80 minutes. We dont think we have ever seen so many free kicks from a match referee, and his calls were dubious for most of the tight Test match.

The early exchanges saw the Asian side repel the USA attacks, and scrumhalf Jack Coombes stole a ball to win a turnover penalty crucially as they were scrambling for numbers.

Once the ball was kicked upfield, centre Marcus Rammge charged down a laboured clearance kick in the 5th minute, and he collected the loose ball to score under the posts, with de Thierry converting for a 7-0 lead. The USA responded with phased attack play and moved the ball well to score a try by the 10th minute to level the score.

Hong Kong China would incur the first of two yellow cards, which has been their standard average in the Nations Cup, as Harry Sayers went to the bin for a mistimed challenge in the air.

The USA struggled to make the most of the extra man, and even their scrum, which was the only one in the Cup to have a 100 per cent success rate coming into the game, could not overpower HKCR. The side also clearly benefited from at least three knock-on calls the referee deemed to have gone backwards; all were questionable.

Photo Credit: World Rugby / Getty Images

Eventually the USA managed to take the lead, as their rolling maul, which was strong, saw them score a second try in the corner, with Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz scoring, to lead 14-7 after 20 minutes.

HKCR had several players stand out with the ball in hand in defence – captain Josh Hrstich and Jack Bartlett with multiple carries. When Hong Kong China had the ball in hand, they caused the USA problems, and the running rugby won them a penalty that Thierry slotted to make it 10-14.

Twice, though, HKCR’s desperate defence held up the USA over the try line. But it was the men in red who would strike next through a superb solo try by Bartlett as he picked up the ball off the back of a ruck to find space in front of him, and he ran 40m, bumping off the covering defenders to score right by the posts. HKCR led 17-14 just before the break.

One more curious call from the referee before the half saw him penalise Coombes for not putting the ball in straight at the scrum – unicorns are more common than those calls in modern rugby. Thankfully no damage was done as they entered the sheds.

Discipline again came to haunt the Asian Champions early in the second half as the captian was yellow-carded for a high hit within 90 seconds. Under pressure, HKCR was racking up penalties, and the USA targeted them at the lineouts and mauls but HKCR found a way to keep them out.

USA Head Coach Scott Lawrence made changes to try and influence the game, but both sides were guilty of some woeful kicking in the middle part of the field with many contestable kicks but both gave away posession to easily.

HKCR saw out the ten minutes of the yellow card without conceding. Their defence was immense; players like James River were huge, but every player stood up and showed great character and determination as they won penalties defending their line – often scrambling and ripping the ball from the USA in attack.

In the 55th minute, de Thierry went for the posts but narrowly missed. Shortly after, a second turnover by Coombes allowed the flyhalf to successfully kick three points to extend the lead to 20-14.

The USA upped the tempo and had countless carries and phases of play. A scrum on the HKCR 5m went badly wrong, the only one all game, and the USA dominance was rewarded with a penalty try on the hour mark.

With Joe Barker on for de Thierry, fullback Dylan McCann was on kicking duty and kicked well to retake the lead 23-21 with 15 minutes left. Sayers had several excellent takes under the high ball and made good meters; he nearly rounded the USA defence and followed up his own kick chase, but it did result in a HKCR scrum 5m out. That resulted in another penalty, which McCann slotted to lead 26-21.

The USA onn attack were held up over the try line once again by desperate defence. With under 5 minutes left, Kaleb Geiger scored in the corner; the ball had popped out of the ruck and caused a stutter in defence, which allowed him to dive over for what was the winning score. The try took them even, but the excellent conversion nudged them ahead.

The Hong Kong China side had several phases as they looked for one more score to win the game, but after the hooter, a no-look pass found its way into a retreating USA defender’s arms, and they kicked it dead to seal the win.

HKCR had made more than 160 tackles vs around 100 from the USA (depending on which stats provider you use), and eventually conceded fewer penalties than the USA and had won more turnovers. The missed tackle stat (20+) was still far too high for Test rugby but when you play 20 minutes with 14 players, that is bound to happen.

Photo Credit: USA Rugby

Josh Hrstich said; “There is frustration there as we know we are good enough. We showed today we pushed one of the form teams for 80 minutes and I am so proud of this group and the performance. We need to show better discipline – that made the difference with the two yellow cards as that was always going to put us under pressure.

It’s massive growth for us, and we are excited to go next week against Canada. There are lots of positives there and some little fixes for us.”

USA captain Jason Damm added, “We gave them some opportunities and we didn’t execute well there. Ultimately we showed some resolve and continued belief that we could get it done. We showed patience on defence, and we kept them wacking them back and managed to win the ball back.”

You can see more of the Nations Cup here.

Hong Kong China Scorers