Kowloon Ladies lost a thriller as they nearly upended the Premiership form-book in round three – falling just short in a 22-17 loss to HKFC Ice. In other Premiership action, Valley Black outclassed City Sparkle 51-0, while USRC Tigers beat CWB Phoenix 32-0 at Kings Park.
HKFC scored twice as Stephanie “SSY“ Siu and Jamie Bourk both crossed the try-line before Kowloon put it’s first points on the board with an unconverted try by Chloe Mak Ho Yee. Ice scored a third try through Sophie Short just before the hooter to take a comfortable 17-5 lead at half time.
Kowloon fought back with two tries in the second half the last coming in the 75th minute to pull level at 17-17. Despite a rash of six injuries in the second half, it was Ice who used the clock best as Crystal Wray scored in the dying seconds to secure the 22-17 win.
“We lost in the last minute because we lacked a bit of control late. We didn’t have to rush things as much as we did, but the performance in the second half was exactly what I was looking for,” said Kowloon coach Jonathan Ho.
“Scoring in the first half gave us some belief and the second half was a huge improvement. Just a tiny bit more and the game could have been ours. We can now look ahead confidently to Tigers next week,” Ho added.
“It was a tough day at the office and we were glad to come through,” said HKFC coach David Wigley. “We expect every game to be tough and today shows why. At half time we thought we were in a comfortable position: our lineouts were going well, and even though our scrums were problematic in places, we felt well ahead. We let them start the second half better and fair play to them, they turned the screw quite well. We had six injuries in the second half so we had to do a lot of adjusting. We were successful in reshaping and that was pleasing to see.”
Valley Black ran out easy winners against City Sparkle, improving their record to 3-0 on the season. Valley led 26-0 at halftime and closely mirrored that strike rate in the second half, a remarkable output considering they spent stretches with 13 on the pitch after having two players sin-binned for repeat infringements.
“It was a good game and a good result. It was quite difficult and feisty in places,” said Valley coach James Elliot. “They were a bit physical and our girls couldn’t get the fast ball that they wanted.”
USRC Tigers beat CWB Phoenix 34-0 but coach Liu Kwok-leung seemed pleased to have come through with any type of win at all:
“It was a very hard game. In the first half we played great and everything was going according to plan. In the second half we got some injuries, and had to bring on some younger players. That was when we lost our concentration. We lost momentum and focus, and made a lot of errors. They put us under pressure, but we worked hard in defence,” said Liu
It was another tough blow for Phoenix, who have faced the stiffest schedule in the early going – meeting last season’s top three in succession to start the year.
“In the end, we were very strong in our attack, but the players were not ready,” said a disappointed Causeway Bay coach Ocean Chow.
“We weren’t mentally ready in the first half. We raised our game and created some opportunities to score in the second, but we failed to follow through. We didn’t play as well as we did last week against Gai Wu. If we had, then the scores would have been closer, or it could have even been a win.”
Additional reporting: HKRU