By Julian Linden, OCA Media
Nagoya, Japan, October 3, 2026: Hong Kong, China completed a rare three-peat of golden victories in men’s rugby 7s at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games with a near perfect combination of attack and defence that proved too hot for any of their rivals to handle.
Unbeaten at the Asian Games since the 2014 final at Incheon, Hong Kong, China collected its third straight gold medal in rugby after beating China 26-0 in the final at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Rugby Field on Saturday.
Incredibly the pre-tournament favourites handled the added pressure of being expected to win by also keeping their opponents scoreless in five of their six matches, with only Korea breaching their line in the semis.
“We’re always talking about the three-peat, I think only one other team has done it, which is Japan,” Hong Kong, China captain James Christie said. “To be on that level is pretty good.
“Pressure is a privilege. We always talk about it. If we didn’t feel the pressure, it wouldn’t mean anything to us, and it means the world to us to win that gold medal.”
After a bruising start to the final with both teams hitting each other hard in defence, Hong Kong, China seized control with two tries from Harry Sayers then one from Dafyyd Phillips after the halftime siren to lead 21-0 at the interval.
Hong Kong, China added a fourth try early in the second half from their bustling winger Juan Oyana to put the result beyond doubt, then focused their energy on maintaining a clean sheet.
“A great first half. But we knew they were going to come out firing, and they did in that second half,” James said.
“We had to keep the intensity, keep the fire, and we did that straight from kickoff. It can be a punch to the stomach when you get a try scored on you right after halftime. And we just had to keep going from there, because they threw everything at us.
“It happens every four years, so it’s hugely special. We are the home of sevens but we want to be bigger in the world.
“Being top of Asia is good, but we’re not happy to settle there.”
Bronze medallists in 2006, China had never made it to the final before after losing in each of their three previous semi-final appearances so were delighted with the team’s overall performance.
“We made history by winning a silver medal, our first in nearly 20 years, and I’m really happy and excited about that, because it carries a lot of significance,” China skipper Shan Changshun said.
“I still can’t quite believe it yet; I haven’t quite come to terms with it. After we qualified for the final, I wasn’t thinking about anything else. I just thought, ‘We still have one more match to play. I have to go out there'. We’d already made history by reaching second place, but I still wanted to go for the gold medal.”
*Japan won the bronze medal by beating Korea 17-5 in the third-place playoff to partially make up for the disappointment of missing the final after losing to China 10-7 in the semis.
“This isn’t the goal we were aiming for. I’m glad we were able to win in front of everyone who supported us, but this isn’t good enough,” Japan’s Ryodai Shirakuni said.
“As the host country we have so many people coming to watch, and we’re carrying the weight of so many people's feelings, so it would be no good to end the day with the feeling of a loss. So we showed our style of rugby until the end because we were determined to win.”
