UAE captain Alastair Thompson lamented his side’s start as they succumbed to a 75-point defeat to Hong Kong in the Asian 5 Nations opener.

The visitors took the lead inside 90 seconds following an Andy Russell mistake and never looked back, and while Thompson felt they began the game on the wrong foot, he believes his side went down fighting.

Thompson said: “I think when you start a game like that…well it wasn’t a great start. I don’t think our heads went down however and the guys responded well.”

Thompson also felt his team relied too much on kicking to touch rather than playing through the phases, although he admitted the strength of the visitors performance gave the UAE little choice. He added: “If you’re gonna kick the ball you have to kick it well. At critical times in the game we didn’t do that. It’s not in our game plan to kick it but when you’re under immense pressure… we played into Hong Kong’s hands unfortunately.”

Coach Duncan Hall looked to the positives as he continues to bed new players into the team.

Only a handful of players remained from last year’s campaign and Hall feels his side are slowly growing as a team, despite the heavy reverse here.

“The only way to learn is by playing. We had 10 new caps in Tunisia and now they’re three games wiser.

“This is a program; it’s not a one week thing. The players tried the best but we were outpaced,” said the Australian.

Hong Kong coach Leigh Jones was surprisingly unenthusiastic about his team’s performance, citing a lack of cohesion in the team.

“We were feeling a little flat, and it was more the performance of individuals than the collective game that got us across the line. There’s a lot to work on and a lot more to come from the team.” he said.