Category: March

Valley Black host HKFC Ice (Happy Valley, 6pm) and Gai Wu Falcons take on USRC Tigers at KGV (4.30pm), in this weekend’s Women’s Premiership Grand Championship semi finals.

The Falcons and Tigers will meet in their winner-take-all match to see who advances to the grand final. Confidence levels at both clubs are high ahead of the match with Falcons spirits lifted by a strong performance in an 8-7 loss against Valley on the final league weekend. While Tigers dispatched Football Club, 52-12, on their last outing. Both teams enter the penultimate round well rested after walkovers in the quarter-final stages.

“Our confidence is high after the game against Valley. We enter this weekend with a lot of self-belief,” said Falcons coach Lai Yiu-pang.

“Defensively we improved a lot. Our structures were working, our skills, our tackle rate, everything – we performed really well. We put them under pressure and were able to keep the ball for long periods. We knew what we had to do and went about it in the right way.

“That is the style we have been after all season. We have to keep our phase play going, whether in the forwards or backs, and above all we have to keep hold of the ball,” said Lai.

That performance against Valley has Tigers on notice. “Gai Wu have improved a lot recently,” said Tigers coach Liu Kwok-leung. “I watched them play Valley. They’re strong mentally, and strong in contact. It will be a tough game.

“We need to work hard to build our phases and once we get the ball, it’s crucial that that we keep it in hand and make the most of it,” added Leung.

Gai Wu have beaten the Tigers twice in the league this season but Lai knows that league performances no longer matter. “It’s knockout rugby now, and we can’t underestimate anyone. Last year we lost out to Tigers for second place in the league so we know how strong they are.

“You can’t underestimate any opponent, especially Tigers. They’ve got the ability and they’ve got the players like Natasha Olson-Thorne and Nam Ka-man. Even though they finished third in the league, we know that anything can happen,” added Lai.

“We have to make sure our structure holds like it did against Valley. We have to play the territory game. We want to create momentum, but if we can’t, we need to be accurate in our kicking game to secure good field position.

“We have to enforce that understanding across the whole squad, to make sure everyone understands how to respond in different situations, in defence and attack,” Lai added.

Tigers are also entering the weekend ready for a full-throated roar. “We’ve played good rugby recently, and improved throughout the season. In our last game, we performed well. So the team is confident and our defence is going to be key,” Liu noted.

“We need to be strong at the back, and build from there. The entire Gai Wu forward pack are Hong Kong players; their conditioning is superb and they are very experienced.

“But we’ve got younger players who are coming up and learning fast. In the Grand Championships you don’t know what to expect. People can perform beyond even their own expectations. If we keep mentally strong, anything can happen,” Liu added.

Both teams will be impacted by injury or unavailability this weekend, for the Falcons, Melody Li Nim-yan is out of action due to an injury picked up on the recent sevens team training tour in New Zealand while another of Gai Wu’s trio of sevens stars, Candy Cheng, is also unavailable this weekend. Tigers’ injury concerns include stalwart Lindsay Varty, who is also out with an injury picked up in New Zealand,while emerging star Jessica Ho is still recovering from a shoulder injury and will have to pass a late fitness test to play.

The good news for Falcons fans is that Hong Kong international Aggie Poon Pak-yan is set to return from an ankle injury this weekend. “I’m looking forward to seeing how she contributes. She hasn’t played XVs for nearly a month,” said Lai.

Additional reporting and image: HK Rugby

HKFC Ice beat CWB Phoenix 32-5 while USRC Tigers and Gai Wu Falcons advanced by walkover to complete the semi-final pairings in the Women’s Grand Championship.

HKFC Ice will face undefeated league champions Valley while Falcons will play Tigers in next weekend’s semi-finals.

“I’m very happy with the result. Football Club versus Causeway Bay is one of the closest match-ups in the Premiership and it was a lot tougher than the scoreline suggests,” said coach David Wigley who was pleased with his side’s efforts on a day when everything went right for the Sports Road outfit.

“We started very well, at last. We’ve often started slowly this season, and it was a good time to put that right. We got a couple of tries early and that set us on track,” Wigley noted.

Two early first-half tries saw HKFC take a healthy lead with Jamie Bourk, celebrating her 19th birthday and her last game before departing Hong Kong for university, putting Ice on the scoreboard almost from the kick-off. A second try soon followed, coming off a driving maul as HKFC’s forwards handed a stiff challenge to their opposing pack. A similar move built around a driving maul at the close of the half added more points.

With both coaches predicting the backlines would be the difference makers ahead of the game, the match ran counter to form, developing as a physical battle between two accomplished forward packs.

“It wasn’t so much of a backline affair as I’d expected. All our players did well, but it was the forwards who carried the day. If anything, our backline could have used their possession better,” Wigley said.

“Our forwards took it to their forwards and beat them. It was the first time this season that our forwards have outscored the backs. We got in their faces and tried to stop the ball getting out to their wings and it seemed to work,” added Wigley.

Football Club kept up the pressure in the second half with Stephanie Sin scoring a 60th minute try, capping a well developed backline movement, before hooker Royce Chan Leong-sze added a try.

The prolific attack was matched with some dogged defence from HKFC. “Our defence worked well. Causeway Bay always attacks around the fringes but we were prepared for that and effectively neutralised their offensives.

HKFC’s hard-fought win ushered their closest competitors throughout the league season out of the Grand Championship stakes, but the challenge now gets stratospherically harder with the route to the final going through league champions Valley Black, who are unbeaten in three seasons.

HKFC Ice will look to hand Valley Black its first loss in 40 matches but Wigley knows it will be tough. “Unfortunately, a few of our girls will be away for the game against Valley but hopefully we can put up a good fight. We haven’t put in a good shift against them this season and we really want to show what we can do,” Wigley asserted.