The criticism came after an incident of a protest song being played instead of the Chinese anthem during the same match.

According to the post by the media outlet earlier this morning, the regional flag used during the rugby sevens tournament on Monday had a different design than the official version, including that the bauhinia petals were larger, and the five stars were tilted.

In a statement on Thursday, the Hong Kong Rugby Union said the teams carry official flags to all international competitions.

The "wrong version" flag displayed in the South Korea match came from a Hong Kong traveling supporter out of the stands when the Korea Rugby Union informed the team that they would play the Chinese anthem following the cup final and during the prize presentation, said the Union.

"We are thankful for the supporters that traveled to South Korea to show their support for Team Hong Kong," the Union said, noting they are confident that there is no malicious intent around the provision of this flag.

Last year, the Hong Kong badminton team also had a "wrong" version of the regional flag printed on their jerseys at the Tokyo Olympics, and in 2017, one red line on the bauhinia petal of the flag was missing from one page of the electronic version of the Basic Law published by the government.