Home > Sports > More

Rugby sevens team earn first Asiad silver medal in 17 years

Published: 26 Sep. 2023, 19:56 Updated: 27 Sep. 2023, 22:55

JIM BULLEY
[email protected]

Korea's Kim Chan-ju tackles a Hong Kong player during the final of men's rugby sevens tournament at the Hangzhou Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

The Korean men’s rugby sevens team finished second at the Asian Games on Tuesday, taking silver for the first time in 17 years after losing 14-7 to Hong Kong in the final.

Korea put up a fierce fight against the reigning Asian Games champions, holding off an onslaught but falling 7-0 behind in the first half but rallying with a Chang Yong-heung try converted by Kim Eui-tae to get back into the game. That effort came too late, unfortunately, with Hong Kong already holding an unsurmountable 14-0 lead.

Korea dominated throughout the group stage at the Games, beating Chinese Taipei 22-0 and the OCA Independent Athlete team 22-7 to top Pool B. Moving into the knockout stage, Korea made short work of Malaysia, 26-5, yesterday before beating China 36-7 in the semifinals.

Rugby sevens is one of the three forms of rugby, alongside rugby union — as seen in the Rugby World Cup — and the less common rugby league. Sevens is a scaled-down form of rugby union and is played on the same size field, but with much faster gameplay.

Although not widely considered a rugby-playing country, Korea has always been one of the strongest countries in Asia and has never failed to medal at the Asian Games.

Korea took gold at the 1998 and 2002 Asian Games — it actually took two golds at both tournaments because rugby union was also included as a separate event — winning silver in 2006 and bronze at the last three tournaments.

Japan and Hong Kong are the two other Asian powerhouses, alternating gold and silver over the last three tournaments. But this year the bracket meant that Japan and Hong Kong met in the semifinals, with Hong Kong taking gold and Japan bronze.

BY JIM BULLEY [[email protected]]