Asia Rugby Women’s Championship: Japan-Kazakhstan final after Hong Kong lose – with 5 minutes left on online clock
- Semi-final finishes with over five minutes left on the clock shown to online audiences, with Hong Kong narrowly trailing Kazakhstan
- Hong Kong Rugby Union says: ‘We fully respect that the referee is the sole judge of time’
Japan and Kazakhstan will meet in the final of the Asia Rugby Women’s Championship on Sunday after Hong Kong’s involvement was curtailed earlier than they would have hoped.
Having been in sync with the half-time whistle and paused, as is the norm, for injury stoppages and water breaks, the clock showed 74 minutes and 50 seconds when referee Eri Kamimura of Japan blew for full-time.
Kamimura, a well respected official, appeared to be prompted by an off-pitch siren. There is no suggestion that she made any error or that any foul play occurred.
Asked whether it had concerns, the Hong Kong Rugby Union said: “We fully respect that the referee is the sole judge of time. It was a great match, we are very proud of our team’s efforts, and we wish Kazakhstan all the best ahead of their game against Japan.”
Asia Rugby, the continent’s governing body, did not respond to an inquiry about the timekeeping on Wednesday, but said on Sunday that the referee’s watch had been in sync with the official off-pitch time before the final whistle.
It said a glitch had caused the wrong time to be shown on screens, and a dedicated person would be assigned to oversee it for Sunday’s final.
Kazakhstan, who scored five tries to three, were well worth their lead at the Almaty Sports Training Complex and might have stretched it with better placekicking.
However, scores by Qian Jiayu and Chong Ka-yan ensured Hong Kong were only 17-16 adrift at the interval, before their captain, Natasha Olson-Thorne, provided the moment of the match with a solo try in the second period.
When a clearance kick missed touch just inside the Kazakh half, the outside centre dodged one tackler, handed off another and shimmied into a narrow gap on the right touchline. Sprinting clear, she stepped in to force the defenders to check their covering runs, before accelerating past them on the outside to score.
“We’re disappointed because a lot of that came from our errors and not following what we wanted to do,” Olson-Thorne said. “We’re going to learn from this game, come back and keep getting better.”
Defeat denied Hong Kong a place in this autumn’s WXV, World Rugby’s new international competition aimed at developing the women’s game.
