Lu Zhuan, China's top try scorer in the Shanghai Sevens, on his way to scoring a try during a 31-7 win over Malaysia in the Plate final. [Photo Provided to China Daily]

SHANGHAI - The South Korea men's team made it a hat-trick of titles at the HSBC Shanghai Sevens when it fought back from the brink of defeat to scrape past Hong Kong in sudden-death overtime in a scintillating final, 22-17, on Sunday at Yuanshen Stadium.

The youthful squad looked down and out when it dropped behind Hong Kong 17-0 early in the second half after Tom McQueen, Keith Robertson and outstanding skipper Rowan Varty had all scored tries.

However, the Koreans, inspired by tournament MVP Kim Gwang-min, levelled the score with three tries - the last coming in the final minute - all from Kim.

In sudden death, Noh Hoon-jae found himself on the end of a string of clever passes and crossed the line for the winning try, despite his team being reduced to six men.

"It is nice to be the MVP, but the award belongs to my team," said a weary but happy Kim after the final. "We played well together. I am really happy about that because we had so many new players on the team.

"When we were down by so much I didn't really care because I knew we could fight back if we played hard and well."

Hong Kong's Welsh coach, Dai Rees, was not overly impressed by the refereeing, but remained gracious after a heartbreaking defeat.

"I am frustrated right now, but overall I thought we played quite well and we did beat Japan (in the semis)," Rees said.

"We would like to have won it, but we will just have to wait another year now. We made nave mistakes when we were under pressure. The young lads (of South Korea) were wounded when they lost to the Philippines yesterday, but they fought back today and have a very bright future."

That stunning loss by the Koreans set up a Cup quarterfinal clash with China early yesterday, and they re-found their form with a 36-7 thumping of the host.

As some consolation, China claimed the second-tier Plate title by defeating Malaysia 31-7 in the final, while Chinese Taipei clinched the Bowl over the United Arab Emirates, 17-7.

The Chinese women's side, led by irrepressible Fan Wenjuan, won that four-team competition's crown, but not without a few scares in the final from a rapidly improving Kazakhstan outfit, 19-10.

The next event of the newly-created HSBC Asian Sevens Series will be the Borneo Sevens on Sept 24-25 in Kota Kinabalu. Hong Kong is the reigning champion of that event.

China Daily