Hong Kong secured second place in the Asian Five Nations with a marauding 62-3 home win over a ragged UAE on Saturday, bolstering their credentials for qualification for future World Cups.
They finish the tournament with wins over Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, UAE and a battling home loss to Japan -- who took the title for the fourth successive time.
Coach Dai Rees hailed the win, which gives Hong Kong the accolade of being Asia's second best team, as a big step towards entry for upcoming World Cups in 2015 and 2019.
"It's been a good championship," he said. "It's been a couple of years in the building but we've got a base to build on."
Heavy rain made play treacherous on the Hong Kong Football Club's artificial pitch, with the ball squirting out of both team's hands early on.
But the home side made light of the conditions, notching nine tries in a performance dominated at first by their pack and finished by a flying back line to demolish any hopes the UAE harboured of overhauling them for second.
The visitors, still reeling from last week's 111-0 battering by Japan, gave away possession and failed to plug defensive gaps, despite taking the lead with a penalty.
Hong Kong's forwards filled their boots, dominating the pack from the start, while their backs, led by captain Tom McColl, tore holes through the visitors' hapless defence.
The first try came on 20 minutes through Alex Harris -- the burly hooker going over from a lineout 10 metres out to spark a flurry of scores.
Pale Tauti bundled over to extend the home side's lead soon after, followed by a converted score from Mark Goosen to make it 17-3.
Next, chunky prop Nigel Hobler sidestepped his way to the line before flanker Nick Hewson broke free of a tackle to go over for a converted try to help the home side to a 29-3 half-time lead.
The UAE started the second period well, their forwards turning the ball over and showing more desire to pin the home side back.
But a streaking run from Hong Kong's Ross Armour ended thoughts of a comeback with a try again converted by McColl.
Hewson and Armour both scored again, the second popped over the posts by McColl to nudge the home side beyond the 50-point mark, before late tries from Alex McQueen and Alex Hood took it to 62-3.
“It feels like a job half done,” said UAE’s departing coach Bruce Birtwistle. “While we have achieved our target of staying in the Top Five next year, our goal was to finish second, but Hong Kong came up with a very impressive display today.”
Birtwistle, who leaves for his native New Zealand after three years in the job, added: “I’m very surprised by the result. I thought it would be a lot closer.”
Japan will play their "home" fixture against Sri Lanka in Colombo later on Saturday after the country's March 11 earthquake and tsunami tragedy badly disrupted sporting fixtures.