Women’s Rugby Fixtures – 21 October, 2017

Tottenham Hotspurs v Real Madrid @ Churchills – 17 October, 2017

Tottenham Hotspurs played Real Madrid in the Champions League and despite the early morning 2:45am kick-off Spurs fans were out in force at Churchills in Wanchai to cheer their team on.
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Feminem Dazzles in Adele Tribute Show at FLM

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After the sexy Scarlett So Hung-Son warmed up the crowd with a little burlesque number. A dazzling and wonderfully funny Adele tribute performance by Feminem had the crowd in stitches.

As well as several covers the show included a hilarious Whitney Houston / KFC parody (see the video) and climaxed with the packed FLM enjoying a sing-a-long with the star. The show is part of the ongoing Pink Season HK which runs until 4 November .
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Hong Kong Women Fifth in Sri Lanka Sevens

Hong Kong’s women finished the Sri Lanka leg of Asia Rugby Sevens in fifth, going down to Thailand 12-7 in the Cup quarter-finals, however they held on to fourth place overall in the series.

The game against Thailand could have gone either way and while she was disappointed her side couldn’t again win through to the top four, coach Anna Richards was realistic about the result.

“The whole weekend has been a bit of leveller with the mud, there has been a lot of close games and I think Thailand have played pretty well across the two series,” she said.

“We just made too many errors and we just turned the ball over a bit too much. I think the girls have just got to get a little bit better at staying calm and being able to maintain their focus and skills in the big games.”

Hong Kong led 7-5 through a converted try to Chong Ka-yan but just couldn’t hang on, with Richards praising the efforts of the speedy winger. “I thought she played really well, the conditions didn’t really suit her but she came up trumps with a couple of really good tries for us,” Richards said.

Colleen Tjosvold ran in three tries as Hong Kong defeated South Korea 29-0 in the plate semi-final, with Ivy Kwong Sau-yan and debutant Vivien Poon Hoi-yan also scoring.

Hong Kong hung on to see off Sri Lanka 12-5 in the plate final thanks to two more tries to Chong.

As well as Poon, Jessica Ho Wai-on and Agnes Chan Tsz-ching were also on debut and Richards was pleased with her new blood as she looks ahead to tournaments in Fiji and Borneo early next year in the lead up to the World Series qualifier in Hong Kong.

“It was just about introducing them to tournament pressure,” Richards said. “I thought Agnes did really well, Vivien had a couple of good games today. Jess didn’t get too much game time but what she did do, she did well. I think it was a good introduction for the three of them.

“They have got next week off and then we are just going to throw them back in the gym, they have had a pretty tough year and it will just be about building them back up and getting their bodies right.”

Additional reporting/images: hkru

Hong Kong Win Asia Sevens in Sri Lanka

Hong Kong’s men are off to the Rugby Sevens World Cup in San Francisco next year after beating Japan 19-14 in extra-time in the final of the third round of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series in Sri Lanka.

To qualify for the Sevens World Cup Hong Kong needed to finish at least two spots ahead of South Korea to grab second spot in the series behind winners Japan and their tournament win meant they did it comfortably, with the Koreans slipping to fourth after losing the play-off for third spot to the hosts.

“It’s a huge thing for Hong Kong rugby to be playing in those major competitions. To beat Japan twice in two days is a great achievement and the most important thing was we knew we’d qualified going into that last game but it was just not to relax and go on and win the tournament.” said Hong Kong coach Paul John.

Toby Fenn and Kane Boucaut scored tries as Hong Kong battled back from a 14-7 half-time deficit to level things up when the hooter sounded, with Seb Brien crossing in the early stages of extra-time to secure victory.

Earlier on, Boucaut notched three tries and Hugo Stiles two as Hong Kong blitzed Taiwan 50-0 in the quarter-finals, while Salom Yiu Kam-shing found the line twice in a 26-12 semi-final win over Sri Lanka.

“The main goal was to get qualification and I’m just pleased the way that they dug in and fought for each other out there,” John said.

Additional reporting/images: hkru

New Co-Work Space in Sai Ying Pun

Co-working space, naked Hub, has opened its second location in Hong
Kong. Naked Hub@New Street is situated on a quiet street off
Hollywood Road on the fringe of Sai Ying Pun and Sheung Wan.

It offers workspace for almost 300 people across four floors and includes a range of co-working solutions including hot desks and private offices.

In addition, the New Street Hub offers a street-level outdoor terrace, coffee bar and naked Gallery which looks to host art from local up-and-coming artists.

naked Hub@New Street
5-13 New Street, Sai Ying Pun. www.nakedhub.com

Scallywag Stumbles As Mapfre Win Alicante In-port Race

Local boat Xabi Fernández’s Mapfre were a popular winner in the first point scoring race of the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race.

Fernández and his team made a bold call at the start to duck behind the entire fleet in order to sail up what turned out to be the favoured right hand side of the course, coming from behind to earn a narrow lead at the first gate.

“It was pretty clear from Joan (Vila) and Rob (Greenhalgh) that we wanted to hit the right side of the course in the first upwind looking for more breeze,” explained Fernández. “Our intention was to start on port but Pablo (Arrarte) saw the gap himself when Brunel did a poor tack and they couldn’t accelerate so we want for the cross and we had plenty of room and once we hit the right everything went well.”

Mapfre sailed away to establish a lead of nearly one-minute at the bottom gate, giving them a lead they would enjoy the rest of the way.

“The truth is it hasn’t been an easy race but we took a bit of a risk at the start,” Fernández said after the finish. “We saw the gap in front of Brunel and we went for it. Everything went really well.”

In fact, the Spanish team sailed a flawless race, in terms of strategy and execution, and were never threatened after grabbing the lead at the first mark.

But behind them, it was a hard-fought race. Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag was strong on the first leg, but dropped back over the course of the race. In contrast, Dongfeng Race Team fought up the fleet to grab second place, battling with Vestas 11th Hour Racing and Team Brunel who were trading places throughout the race.

“There was a lot of action! Mapfre played their own game alone but behind them, we had a big fight for second place. It’s good, it’s good,” said skipper Charles Caudrelier on Dongfeng Race Team.

“We showed how we can sail well, after having not such good results in the last few days. It’s great that we managed to come back and get this result.”

“It was a very exciting first In-Port Race for us,” said Charlie Enright, the skipper of Vestas 11th Hour Racing. “They’re always really close. You know, when you’re racing these 65-foot canting keel boats around a one-mile track it gets interesting, with a lot of exchanges and big headsails and a lot of grinding. We did some good things and some bad things and got third place. All in all, not a bad way to start the campaign.”

“I had a bad start and that put us on the back foot,” said Bouwe Bekking the skipper of Team Brunel. “But we sailed the boat very nicely. All in all, we’re pretty happy with how we sailed today.”

Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag made a late gain to grab fifth over team AkzoNobel with Turn the Tide on Plastic never recovering from a poor first leg.

“It was okay. Fifth’s not great but it was okay. We were second at the top but we just made one mistake on the first run and it cost us. Basically, it was good. Amazing to be racing here in Alicante,” said David Witt, the skipper of Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag.

Volvo Ocean In-Port Race Alicante Provisional Results

Position Team Elapsed Time Points
1 MAPFRE 54:38 7
2 Dongfeng Race Team 56:06 6
3 Vestas 11th Hour Racing 56:54 5
4 Team Brunel 57:13 4
5 Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag 58:07 3
6 team AkzoNobel 58:31 2
7 Turn the Tide on Plastic 59:39 1

Additional reporting and images: Volvo Ocean Race,  Pedro Martinez, Ainhoa Sanchez

Asia Rugby Sevens Series in Sri Lanka

Hong Kong’s men and women enter the final round of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series in Sri Lanka needing strong performances to qualify for next year’s Rugby World Cup Sevens.

A new-look women’s side featuring four changes will take on Japan, Sri Lanka and South Korea in pool play.

Debutants Jessica Ho Wai-on, Agnes Chan Tsz-ching and Poon Hoi-yan all come in to the side, as well as the returning Sham Wai-sum, replacing Au Yeung Sin-yi, Steph Chan Chor-ki, Lindsay Varty and Yuen Lok-yee.

After a condensed build-up due to the Women’s Rugby World Cup, Richards admits her side are still underdone but are better positioned than in the first round of the women’s competition in South Korea three weeks ago.

“The girls have been training pretty well so we are looking forward to it,” she said. “The first leg was pretty difficult and we didn’t have a great lead into that; I think the girls are more comfortable in the sevens environment now

“Are we sevens fit? Probably not, but the girls have trained well since we came back. What I liked about the first tournament was that we got a good look at the top three so we will be going into this tournament better for that.”

Richards is looking forward to having Sham back in the side and is excited to see World Cup representatives Ho and Chan, as well as the youngster Poon, in action: “I thought [Agnes] played really well at the World Cup so it will be great to see what she can do on the field for us.”

Japan are leading the men’s competition and are the likely winners, while Korea sit two points ahead of Hong Kong after triumphing on home soil three weeks ago with Hong Kong had settling for third.

It means Hong Kong must finish at least two places above South Korea this weekend or things will be awfully tight.

“If we don’t play Korea and don’t win the tournament, then we need to finish two places above them,” coach Paul John said. “We need to play Korea at some point, whoever wins that game will be ahead in the head to head. The bottom line is that if we do really well and win the tournament we will be okay, if we meet Korea along the way that will help us provided we get a positive result from it.

Hong Kong face Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines in pool play, with South Korea and Sri Lanka awaiting on the other side of the draw.

“It means that we get a really good game on day one [against Japan] and depending on what happens at the end of day one is where we cross over,” John said. “It all depends on how the tournament goes and with sevens you can never really predict it so every game is a massive game for us now to put us in a good position for day two.

“Sri Lanka will be stronger being at home and China gave us a difficult game at the end of the tournament last time.”

Debutant Max Denmark comes into the side after recently figuring for the Hong Kong U20s at the World Rugby Junior Trophy. Denmark replaces Fong Kit-fung, who sustained an ankle injury in the last round, in what is the only change to John’s squad.

“Max has been training with us for the last three or four weeks,” John said. “He’s very quick and he’s played wings for the under 20s, he’s a back-row forward as well as playing wing. He gives us a bit of speed out wide and I’m looking forward to watching him play. He’s powerful and he chases kick-offs really well, so it’s exciting for him.”

additional reporting, images: hkru