South Africa take Hong Kong title

In the process the southern hemisphere women became the first South African team to reign victorious in Hong Kong, with the men yet to lift the crown there.

South Africa looked the best team throughout day two and delivered when it mattered in the final, with Zenay Jordaan and Marithy Pienaar scoring the tries. With a number of senior players out, South Africa coach Renfred Dazel praised the work of his up-and-comers.

"The youngsters pulled something out of hat," Dazel said. "The girls deserve it."

Dazel acknowledged the efforts of his entire defence and singled out Nadine Roos for her brilliant work after a day of cut-throat matches.

"This morning we started in a must-win situation against France and we beat them," he said.

"The outstanding players were the youngster Nadine Roos and Marithy Pienaar."

South Africa had earlier defeated Japan 19-10 in an entertaining semi-final after grinding out a 7-5 win over the previously undefeated France to lock in their semi-final berth.

Hong Kong came agonisingly close to making it to the final, pushing France all the way and creating a number of opportunities in a 5-0 semi-final loss.

Stalwarts Aggie Poon Pak-yan and Natasha Olson-Thorne led the way, with a particularly gutsy effort from Olson-Thorne in the final minutes nearly leading to a try.

"I'm disappointed we lost but I'm happy the girls gave everything," coach Anna Richards said.

"We needed to be a bit more patient in that first half, but I'd rather have an endeavour than them not trying."

Richards was proud of the way her charges handled themselves, but rued an early mistake that cost a try.

"It's a two-day tournament and if you're slightly off, it's a cruel game," Richards said.

"14 minutes. You make one mistake and it's very hard to get back from that."

Hong Kong went on to finish the tournament in fourth place, losing the third versus fourth play-off 10-5 against Japan.

Earlier in the day, Hong Kong staved off a physical Japan side to book their semi-final berth, fighting back from 7-0 down to snare a gutsy 14-7 win in their final pool match.

Poon continued her brilliant tournament with the opening try, before Nam Ka-man put the home side in the lead in the second half.

"We didn't start very well but I suppose that shows we are actually improving because we kept our composure," Richards said.

"We went down early and our defence kept us in it. We didn't touch the ball for long periods but we maintained our composure."

China won the Plate final 7-5 over Kazakhstan to cap a much improved second day, while Kenya ran out easy winners in the Bowl, defeating Sri Lanka 29-0.

Group Stages

Pool A

South Africa Select 32 - 0 KenyaKazakhstan 5 - 10 ChinaFrance Development 22 - 5 KenyaSouth Africa Select 7 - 17 KazakhstanFrance Development 39 - 7 ChinaKazakhstan 26 - 12 KenyaSouth Africa Select 7 - 0 ChinaFrance Development 12 - 10 KazakhstanChina 19 - 5 KenyaFrance Development 5 - 7 South Africa Select

Pool B

Hong Kong 45 - 0 Sri LankaArgentina 19 - 12 ThailandJapan 41 - 0 Sri LankaHong Kong 7 - 10 ArgentinaJapan 22 - 7 ThailandArgentina 30 - 5 Sri LankaHong Kong 24 - 0 ThailandJapan 50 - 0 ArgentinaThailand 24 - 12 Sri LankaJapan 7 - 14 Hong Kong

Bowl Final 9th/10th Place

Kenya 29 - 0 Sri Lanka

Plate Semi-finals

Kazakhstan 12 - 5 ThailandChina 28 - 10 Argentina

7th/8th

Thailand 0-17 Argentina

Plate final (5th/6th)

Kazakhstan 5-7 China

Semi-finals

France Development 5-0 Hong KongSouth Africa Select 19-10 Japan

3rd/4th

Hong Kong 5-10 Japan

Cup final

France Development 7-14 South Africa Select