Brazil Beaten at the Death by Hong Kong after Grave Error

Brazil were beaten at the death by Hong Kong on Saturday. A grave error from the home team in the last minute proved to be a killer blow. Brazil had the win wrapped up only to take the ball back inside their own 22 and kick it out. Hong Kong scored from there and landed the conversion for a 26-25 win.

Tupis made a huge error in last minute kicking out after carrying back into the 22. Hong Kong then scored and got the wide conversion to win by 1 point. The try, in the left corner, saw right winger Sebastian Brien over. Center Nathan de Thierry landed the conversion.

The match brought an end to Hong Kong’s three match tour of South America. The Asia no 2 lost to Chile, blasted their way past Paraguay and won at the death against Brazil. In short, it is a tour that will go don in the history books as memorable for Hong Kong.

The match was the first of two for Brazil as part of the 2024 July Internationals. Brazil’s second match is against Belgium in seven days time. Like the match against Hong Kong, Brazil will play host to Belgium at the Estádio Nicolau Alayon in São Paulo.

A crowd of 1,000 were on hand to see Brazil vs Hong Kong. The Asian side opened the scoring with N8 Luke van der Smit breaking the defense to score. Brazil hit back through French import Carlo Mignot. Mignot got a good assist from Gabriel Oliveira.

Matthew Worley sacode for Hong Kong on 35 minutes. It again saw Hong Kong breaching the Brazilian defense. Lucas Tranquez slotted a penalty late in the half to make it 14-10 in favor of the visitors at the interval.

The second-half saw Brazil starting well to overtake Hong Kong. Former captain Gabriel Paganini scored on 63 minutes. After Brazil attacked with a maul, the replacement second-rower scored from a pick-and-go.

Hong Kong found themselves in trouble as replacement prop Faizal Solomona-Penesa was yellow carded. It was a double blow with Brazil awarded a penalty try. Despite being down one man, Hong Kong struck through fly half Matteo Avitabile. Again it was a break through the Brazilian defensive line.

Returning veteran Moisés Duque landed a penalty for Os Tupis. It put Brazil 25-18 ahead. With time up, Hong Kong made Brazil pay for kicking the ball out after taking it back into their own 22. Hong Kong went close from a cross-kick. Then retained possession with Brein going over. de Thierry’ conversion seals a win by the narrowest of margins.

SCORING

BRAZIL (25)
Try (3) – C Mignot; G Paganini; Penalty try
Con (2) – L Tranquez; No Kick
Pen (2) – L Tranquez; M Duque

HONG KONG (26)
Try (4) – L van der Smit; M Worley; M Avitabile; S Brien
Con (3) – N de Thierry (3)

LINEUPS

BRAZIL
1 João Lucas Marino, 2 Endy Willian Pinheiro, 3 Matheus Rocha, 4 Ben Donald, 5 Gabriel Oliveira, 6 Cleber Días (capt.), 7 Matheus Cláudio, 8 André Arruda, 9 Felipe Gonçalves, 10 João Amaral, 11 Ariel Rodrigues, 12 Lorenzo Massari Temer, 13 Carlo Mignot, 14 Robert Teório, 15 Lucas Tranquez

Replacements: 16 David Muller, 17 Levy Marinho, 18 Leonel Moreno, 19 Gabriel Paganini, 20 Adrio de Melo, 21 Maiki Lemes, 22 Lucas Spago, 23 Moisés Duque

HONG KONG
1 Rory Cinammond, 2 Alexander Post, 3 Zac Cinnamond, 4 Kyle Sullivan, 5 Callum McCullouch, 6 Joshua Hristich (capt.), 7 James Sawyer, 8 Luke van der Smit, 9 Jack Combes, 10 Matteo Avitabile, 11 Paul Altier, 12 Ben Axten-Burrett, 13 Nathan de Thierry, 14 Sebastian Brien, 15 Matthew Worley

Replacements: 16 Callum Scott, 17 James Holmes, 18 Faizal Solomona Pensa, 19 Jamie Pincott, 20 Tyler McNutt, 21 Pierce MacKinlay-West, 22 Bryn Philips, 23 Harry Sayers

 

MATCH VIDEO

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Pablo Deluca (Argentina)
Assistants: Simón Larrubia (Argentina); Federico Solari (Argentina)
TMO: Victor Hugo Barboza (BR)