Hong Kong and Canada in decider

CANADA are one point away from a place at next year’s World Cup in Japan after beating Germany 29-10 in a round-robin repechage tournament yesterday.

A bonus-point defeat to Hong Kong in the final match of the tournament next weekend would be enough for the Canucks to claim a spot at the showpiece event in Japan.

Kingsley Jones’ outfit crossed on four occasions through Lucas Rumball, Tyler Ardron, Matt Evans and Gordon McRorie as they closed in on qualification.

Earlier in the day Hong Kong comprehensively beat Kenya 42-17 but need to beat Canada on Friday by more than seven points and restrict them from scoring four or more tries to ensure their first ever appearance at the tournament.

Hong Kong, who lost their opening match of the campaign to Germany, came back from 14-0 down after 23 minutes to run in six tries, two of them from backrow forward Thomas Lamboley.

“That was good, we needed to bounce back after the loss to Germany,” said Lamboley, whose brother Gregory is a France international.

“We got the bonus point and now we can look forward to a ‘final’ against Canada.”

Four teams are involved in the competition in Marseille with the winner going through to face New Zealand, South Africa, Italy and Namibia in the group stages of the World Cup.

The defeats for Kenya and Germany mean that they now cannot qualify for the tournament in Japan.