Hong Kong China Well Beaten by Samoa in Nations Cup 2026 Opener

The Asian champions, Hong Kong China, were comfortably beaten 66-19 by Samoa in the Nations Cup 2026 opener on Saturday, 4th July, at Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Pradanos, Santiago, Chile, in what was the first match between the two teams and the first ever of the Nations Cup.

Feature Photo Credit – World Rugby

It was always going to be a tough physical challenge and a step-up from what the 7-time defending champions of Asia usually face in the region, but truth be told, they were poor for most of the game, except the 20 minutes after the break in which they showed what they are capable of.

The media and online fan scrutiny over Hong Kong China’s involvement at Rugby World Cup 2027 – their first – will only intensify, and they need to have 80-minute performances.

Head Coach Logan Asplin said, “I can not say it was a good team performance as we would not be sitting forty points in arrears, but I think everyone had their bright elements. We previewed all week how we wanted to put them under stress and put them into high-stress areas of the game and we did that significantly well at times.

I can’t knock our boys on effort. We stayed in the game, showed good foot speed, laid in phase counts and we did punish them off things like the kick and aerial game, which we had focused on for the week.”

Samoa ran in four tries in the opening quarter and secured a bonus point for their four tries; their pace and power were far too much for Hong Kong China. Tuna Tuitama, Aki Seiuli, Miracle Faiilagi, and, on debut and a Sevens player, Warren Solomona (he ended up with two in the win) all crossed over. His dazzling runs were impressive, but some of the slipped tackles were too poor.

HKCR will be the first to admit they were not good enough and made it too easy for the Pacific Islanders, who have assembled a squad which plays their rugby around the globe.

The few bright moments for Hong Kong China in the opening half came from fullback Paul Altier, who plays with Richmond in the Championship in England, who was their best player across the match. He was composed under the high ball and created opportunities wth ball in hand, especially his dangerous outside backs Marcus Ramage and Harry Sayers.

Photo Credit – HKCR

It was Samoa, though, who won the physical battle and the ruck contests, and some huge hits in the game put some opposition players out of the contest.  The scrums started on par before the Samoans started to dominate that facet of the game too, which allowed livewire scrumhalf Joel Lam to attack from the base of the set piece

Altier put in an excellent 50/22 which gave them a rare chance to attack, and it was Jack Combes who took a quick tap from a penalty that won them a penalty try in the 28th minute and saw Samoa go down to 14 men as Lam was carded.

Even with a man down,, Samoa scored two more tries in the half. The half ended when Hong Kong China flyhalf Joe Barker had a minute to forget after a poor forward pass and then a yellow card at the end of the period.

The second half started very differently, as it was the team chasing points who came out more assured and played a much better game with a much better attitude, and it was the Samoans who seemed to have forgotten how to play.

HKCR was more direct, had better line speed in defence and much, much better with ball in hand. They caused all sorts of problems for Samoa as Head Coach Logan Asplin must have read the riot act in the change rooms.

Ramage scored first, and it rewarded his great work in the half. Combes was also at the heart of a lot of good things for the Asian champions as they nearly scored another in the corner after Barker tried to make amends and his grubber just went too far for his wing to latch onto.

Photo Credit – HKCR – Harry Sayers scored one of 3 tries against Samoa

Then it was the turn of regular Sevens player Harry Sayers to add a third try as he bounced off a few defenders in the 58th minute for a scoreline of 38-19. They had 76% territory in the second half and had beaten 21 defenders after an hour.

Both Lachlan Doheny (Australian Schools & U18s and NSW Waratahs U18s) and Isaac Campbell-Wu (Bristol Bears Academy & England U19s) made their debuts off the bench, and the introduction of Matt Worley also made a good impact, while Tyler McNutt had a good half.

However, Samoa reversed the momentum, and the substitutions woke them up. The dangerous number 8 Iakopo Petelo-Mapu, who is with Stade Francais, had a huge run as he scored their first points in the half on the hour mark. This opened the floodgates as they scored three more tries in the final quarter – Elisapeta Alofipo with two in the final three minutes.

Hong Kong China captain Pierce Mackinlay-West, who made his debut for the team in 2017 against Kenya, said after the loss, “I think we showed in the second half that we can compete at that level. We are probably just not used to coming up against that standard of opposition. So, I think the learning is that we have just got to get to that pace quicker. We gave ourselves too much to do, the way we played in the first half and in the first 20 minutes, falling off tackles. We can take some belief that we can play at that level, but the learning is that it has got to be from the start next time.”

“We have got to start better. We fell off too many tackles in the first half today. If we fix that up, we show that when we have the ball, we are a really dangerous side and that we can score some points. Just some pretty simple fixes, but the test will be next week against Chile. Can we front up and do that?”, added the captain.

Samoa captain Miracle Faiilagi said, “It was a great effort from the boys to set up good momentum. Hong Kong China was a hard team to play, and we lost our way in the opening 20 minutes of the second half, so it was a great effort of the guys to come back into it. We have a good mixture of experienced players from around the world.”.

Hong Kong China points scorer:
Tries: Penalty try, Marcus Ramage, Harry Sayers
Conversion: Paul Altier x1

Hong Kong China next face Chile in the Nations Cup on the 11th July, who we think they will target as the two teams are in the same Pool at RWC 2027 and the team selected will see changes. The South Americans beat Samoa across two legs in 2025 to qualify for the tournament in Australia, and won their Nations Cup opening match 48-31.

Samoa next play against Georgia, who narrowly beat Uruguay.

You can see the match details here.

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