Brazil defeated at the death by Hong Kong after serious error

Brazil were narrowly defeated by Hong Kong on Saturday. A serious mistake by the home team in the final minute proved to be the final blow. Brazil had already secured victory, but took the ball back to their own 22 and shot it out. Hong Kong scored from there and converted for a 26-25 victory.

Tupis made a big mistake in the last minute by kicking out after carrying back to 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 go over. Center Nathan de Thierry landed the conversion.

The match marked the end of Hong Kong’s three-match tour of South America. The Asian No. 2 lost to Chile, romped past Paraguay and narrowly beat Brazil. In short, it is a tour that will go down in history as a memorable one 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. Like the match against Hong Kong, Brazil will host Belgium on the Nicolau Alayon Stadium in São Paulo.

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

Matthew Worley sacoded for Hong Kong in the 35th minute. Hong Kong again breached the Brazilian defence. Lucas Tranquez slotted home a penalty late in the half to make it 14-10 in favour of the visitors.

In the second half, Brazil started well by catching up with Hong Kong. Former captain Gabriel Paganini scored in the 63rd minute. After Brazil attacked with a maul, the substitute second-rower scored from a pick-and-go.

Hong Kong were in trouble when replacement prop Faizal Solomona-Penesa was shown a yellow card. It was a double blow as Brazil were awarded a penalty. Despite being down a man, Hong Kong struck through flyhalf Matteo Avitabile. Once again it was a breakthrough through the Brazilian defence.

Returning veteran Moisés Duque was awarded a penalty for The Tupis. It put Brazil up 25-18. With time running out, Hong Kong made Brazil pay for kicking the ball out after they returned it to their own 22. Hong Kong came close with a cross-kick. They kept possession after that, but Brein went over it. Thierry’s conversion sealed a victory by the narrowest of margins.

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

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

BRAZIL
1 João Lucas Marino, 2 Endy Willian Pinheiro, 3 Matheus Rocha, 4 Ben Donald, 5 Gabriel Oliveira, 6 Cleber Días (captain), 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 Luca 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

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