Chile Get the Better of Hong Kong with Eyes on World Cup

Chile and Hong Kong will battle-it-out in Townsville, Australia at Rugby World Cup 2027. Saturday’s Nations Cup match in Viña del Mar, Chile served as an opportunity to familiarize each-other with the opposition. It also means Los Cóndores will officially have bragging rights as Chile were convincing winners.

Los Cóndores were 38-17 winners over Hong Kong. It was by six tries to two and sees Chile unbeaten after two rounds of the World Rugby Nations Cup. Hong Kong are yet to win so far in the tournament and their loss to Los Cóndores was insufficient to secure any bonus point.

The contest could be summarized as an old-fashioned forwards clash. Chile’s big men looked to run all evening long. They came away with the opening try with Tomás Ninci awarding the home team with a penalty try on 9 minutes. Hong kong lost Lachan Doheny to a yellow card for the incident. It was there first of four during the match for the Asia no. 2.

Chile’s early dominance continued with tight head Iñaki Gurruchaga scoring. The home side appeared to be on a different level to that of Hong Kong. However,r as the opening half continued, Hong Kong fought back to by two points behind. Hooker Alexander Post charged over for one and scrum-half Jack Combes chased a quick through to score the other.

Raimundo Martínez socorred for Chile in between the two Hong Kong tries. It meant that match was poised at half-time. The second-half was different, though, as Los Cóndores scored all of the points.

The second-half began with Chile dominating the scrum. Opportunities came with captain Martín Sigreb held up in the try zone. A determined Chile attacked again soon after and were rewarded with Raimundo Martínez scoring his second try, again from close range.

Marcelo Torrealba’s try was also from close range after the forwards were camped on the Hong Kong try line. An exception for Chile was the try scored by the impressive young Nicolás Saab. The winger sealed the win three minutes from full-time.

Los Cóndores will put on their unbeaten World Rugby Nations Cup against the unbeaten Georgians next weekend. The match will be at the Estadio La Portada in La Serena. Hong Kong travel across the continent to face Uruguay at the Estadio Charrúa. Both matches will be on Saturday, July 18.

MATCH NOTES

Raimundo Martínez scored 2 tries for Chile.
Marco Alvano made his test debut for Chile.
James Rivers made his test debut for Hong Kong.

SCORING

CHILE (38)
TRY – Penalty Try (9′), I Gurruchaga (15′), R Martinez 2 (36′, 62′), M Torrealba (48′), N Saab (77′)
CON – No Kick (9′), S Videla 3 (37′, 49′, 63′)

HONG KONG (17)
TRY – A Post (33′), J Combes (38′)
CON – P Altier 2 (34′, 40′)
PEN – P Altier (12′)
YC – L Doheny (9′), Z Cinnamond (25′), J Sawyer (61′), H Sayers (65′)
RC – L Doheny (35′)

LINE-UPS

CHILE
1 Javier Carrasco, 2 Diego Escobar, 3 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 4 Santiago Pedrero, 5 Javier Eissmann, 6 Martín Sigren (capt.), 7 Clemente Saavedra, 8 Raimundo Martínez, 9 Lucas Berti, 10 Matías Garafulic, 11 Nicolás Saab, 12 Santiago Videla, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Manuel Bustamante, 15 Iñaki Ayarza

Replacements: 16 Salvador Lues, 17 Emilio Shea, 18 Matías Dittus, 19 Bruno Sáez, 20 Ernesto Tchimino, 21 Marcelo Torrealba, 22 Rodrigo Fernández, 23 Marco Alvano

HONG KONG
1 Rory Cinnamond, 2 Alexander Post, 3 Zac Cinnamond, 4 Lachlan Doheny, 5 Kyle Sullivan, 6 Tyler McNutt, 7 Pierce MacKinlay-West, 8 Josh Hrstich (capt.), 9 Jack Combes, 10 Joe Barker, 11 Harry Sayer, 12 Isaac Campbell-Wu, 13 Max Threlkeld, 14 Marcus Ramage, 15 Paul Altier

Replacements: 16 Callum Scott, 17 Sunia Fameitau, 18 Keelan Chapman, 19 James Rivers, 20 James Sawyer, 21 Brendon Nell, 22 Matteo Avatabile, 23 Matthew Worley

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

Video: To Follow

MATCH OFFICIALS