Uruguay Humiliated by Hong Kong in Montevideo

Uruguay were humiliated on Saturday in Montevideo by Hong Kong, losing 42-40. The contest was just the second ever test match played between the teams. It was the official South America 2 vs Asia 2 battle with Uruguay ranked second to Argentina and Hong Kong ranked second to Japan in their respective continents. Both Uruguay and Hong Kong will compete at Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia.

Joaquín Myszka was in the action in the opening minute. An Uruguayan break following the kick-off culminated  in the Teros hooker scoring from a rolling-maul. It was deemed a non-try after TMO intervention.

The early let-off for Hong Kong was temporary, however, as Uruguay won a penalty minutes later and kicked for the corner to set-up a maul to lineout move. This time Myszka’s try stood. Frenchman Jean Cotarmanac’h missed the conversion attempt.

Hong Kong opened their account on 15 minutes. Paul Altier slotted a penalty from in front of the posts. His next kick had Hong Kong leading. It was a conversion after a gift try from a poor lineout saw Alexander Post scoring.

Altier added a second penalty to make it a 13-5 lead on 24 minutes. Uruguay then came alive to score three quick-fire tries. Two of them went to Myszka who completed his hat-trick in the 29th minute. The third was the best try of the match with Manuel Diana breaking down the left and providing support two phases later to run in for Los Teros.

Juan Manuel Alonso opened the second-half with a try in the left corner for Los Teros. A series of errors followed and Hong Kong took advantage. First, a kick through was watched by three Teros allowing Matthew Worley to pick up the ball and score. Second, Marcus Ramage (scored at the close of the third quarter to narrow the scores to 33-27.

Hong Kong took the lead early in the final quarter. Alexander Post knocked-on the ball in the Uruguayan try zone. However, Craig Evans deemed a side entry, yellow carded Joaquín Myzska and awarded a penalty try.

Minutes later Los Teros only had themselves to blame again. This time Brendon Nell scored after Uruguay assumed they would be awarded a penalty for Hong Kong not releasing the ball on the floor. Evans called play on and Nell had a free run to score.

Consecutive penalties in the Hong Kong 22 saw Uruguay opting for scrums. The forwards pounded away before the ball went wide with Francisco González Capdevilia in from fullback to score in the left corner.

Jean Cotarmanac’h put Uruguay ahead with the conversion but Alfonso Vidal was the villain as he conceded a penalty from the kick-off. Paul Altier slotted it from long-range to win the match for Hong Kong. It will go down as perhaps being the greatest win of all-time for Hong Kong while being a major embarrassment for Uruguay.

• Joaquín Myszka scored a hat-trick for the second consecutive test match for Uruguay.
• Ignacio Dotti earned his 75th cap for Uruguay.
• Francisco Scaldaferri and Máximo Lamelas debuted for Uruguay.
• Loosehead prop Mateo Sanguinetti was ruled-out minutes before kick-off. 

URUGUAY (40)
TRY – J Myszka 3 (6′, 25′, 29′), M Diana (31′), JM Alonso (43′), F González Capdevilia (76′)
CON – J Cotarmanac’h 5 (26′, 30′, 32′, 43′, 76′)
YC – A Vidal (78′)

HONG KONG (42)
TRY – A Post (20′), M Worley (46′), M Ramage (59′), Penalty Tty (66′), B Nell (68′)
CON – P Altier 3 (21′, 47′, 60), No Kick (66′)
PEN – P Altier 3 (15′, 24′, 80′)
YC – L Doheny (27′), M Threlkeld (70′)

URUGUAY
1 Mateo Perillo, 2 Joaquín Myszka, 3 Reinaldo Piussi, 4 Ignacio Dotti, 5 Felipe Aliaga (capt.), 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Lucas Bianchi, 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Joaquín Suárez, 10 Jean Cotarmanac’h, 11 Francisco Scaldaferri, 12 Juan Manuel Alonso, 13 Felipe Arcos Pérez, 14 Juan González, 15 Francisco González Capdevilia

Replacements: 16 Máximo Lamelas, 17 Lucas Porcelli, 18 Santiago Cagnone, 19 Manuel Rosmarino, 20 Mateo Sosa, 21 Ignacio Rodriguez Bosch, 22 Francisco Landauer, 23 Alfonso Vidal

HONG KONG
1 Rory Cinnamond, 2 Alexander Post, 3 Keelan Chapman, 4 James Rivers, 5 Kyle Sullivan, 6 Lachlan Doheny, 7 Pierce Mackinlay-West, 8 Josh Hrstich (capt.), 9 Jack Combes, 10 Matteo Avitabile, 11 Seb Brian, 12 Thomas Hill, 13 Marcus Ramage, 14 Paul Altier, 15 Matthew Worley

Replacements: 16 Ng Siu Lung, 17 Sunia Fameitau, 18 Zac Cinnamond, 19 Maximilan Murphy, 20 Dana Fourie, 21 Brendon Nell, 22 Issac Campbell-Wu, 23 Maxwell Threlkeld

Video: To Follow

Referee: Craig Evans (Wales)
Assistants: Tomás Ninci (Argentina); Cauã Ricardo Santos (Brazil)
TMO: Dan Jones (England)