Former Dragon Evans falls just short as Hong Kong miss out to Tonga
TONGA advanced to next year’s Rugby World Cup in France after a 44-22 win over Hong Kong in the final of an Asia Pacific qualifying tournament yesterday.
Tonga led 20-8 at halftime. Sonatane Takulua scored two first-half tries and added a third in the second half at the 10,000-seat Sunshine Coast Stadium north of Brisbane.
Tonga will play in Pool B in France with defending champion South Africa, No. 1-ranked Ireland, Scotland and Romania.
Hong Kong can still qualify for France via a second-chance tournament in Dubai in November.
A four-team tournament also involving the United States, Kenya and Portugal will determine the 20th team, with the winner joining Pool C with Wales, two-time champion Australia, Georgia and Fiji.
A year ago, Lewis Evans hung up his boots and started planning for life after rugby.
After 15 seasons and over 200 appearances for the Dragons, Evans retired from the game and announced he was taking the plunge and moving to Hong Kong, to take over as director of rugby at USRC Tigers.
That role was initially meant to be coupled with a job in the national age grade set up but things moved quickly.
He was drafted in as a forwards coach to Simon Amor with the senior men’s side and then, when the former England Sevens boss left to take a job in Japan, Evans was thrust into the hot seat.
All of a sudden, he was one game away from taking Hong Kong to the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
A dramatic 23-21 win over South Korea in Seoul last week got them into this weekend’s playoff tie.
Hong Kong have never qualified for the World Cup, whereas Tonga have missed out on just one occasion since the tournament’s inception, underlining the size of the task facing Evans and his team.