After another in a long line of hard-fought matches, Valley Black beat their fierce rivals Gai Wu Falcons, 28-3, at Kings Park. The convincing win sees Valley remain the only unbeaten side after six rounds of the Women’s Premiership. In other Premiership action, Causeway Bay Phoenix edged City Sparkle 12-5 while USRC Tigers beat HKFC Ice 57-5.
While Gai Wu remain level with Valley on the table with 24 points, Valley have a game in hand and their convincing 28-3 win left no doubt as to who is at the top of the league’s pecking order. The Falcons put up a brave fight in the first forty minutes – trailing 9-3 at halftime – three penalties from the excellent boot of Valley fullback Zoe Smith against a single penalty from Aggie Poon Pak-yan.
It was a different game in the second half as Valley stormed home with three tries and two conversions from Smith. Prop Jasmine Cheung and flyhalf Kelsie Bouttle both got on the scoresheet as did centre Adrienne Garvey who broke four tackles in a hard-charging run to get across the paint as Valley put up a significant margin on the Falcons.
Powerful performances from Valley’s elite cadre of current and former internationals; flanker and captain Olivia Coady, a former New Zealand Black Fern; Bella Milo, a former Samoa international; and Hong Kong sevens and fifteens cap Garvey, were a crucial factor in the loss for Falcons coach Lai Yiu-pang.
“Valley gave us a good, hard lesson today. They are a really good team and they have some players that are in another class, even compared with our Hong Kong players. Coady and Bella [Milo] really exposed us today,” said Lai.
Coady was tireless as she dominated the loose and kept the Falcons off balance with her aggressive forward play while Milo and Garvey used the ample possession created by the forwards to open up the attacking channels and put Falcons’ one-on-one tackling under rigorous examination.
“Before the game we talked about the ruck being a key to win but we weren’t able to secure any possession today,” said Lai.
“Coady turned us over all day long and when we did have ball we made too many basic errors. They put us under so much pressure we couldn’t get our structure in place and couldn’t build any momentum in our attack. I was happy with the way we played in the first half but they were too much for us in the second half,” Lai added.
Lai believes that the loss today will ultimately be good for both his side and the Hong Kong XV. Sixteen players from the current national training squad were in action in the match with Gai Wu boasting 13 in their starting 23.
“We all want a higher level of performance week in and week out and these games against Valley and Tigers are getting there. This game will also help the Hong Kong players get ready for their upcoming test matches as the intensity from Olivia and Bella we saw today was the level that Hong Kong players will need to reach in international competition,” Lai added.
Gai Wu and Valley will face off just once more on the last week of the league season in February and Lai says his charges now know what to expect from the defending league and grand champions Valley.
“Now we definitely know what we have to do to beat Valley and we have some time to prepare to do that but it will be up to the girls if they are willing to do what it takes or not,” said Lai.
USRC Tigers thumped HKFC Ice 57-5 to break to claim sole possession of third place after the win with Ice slipping to fourth with Causeway Bay hot on their heels.
City ran CWB Phoenix close in their hunt for a first ever Premiership victory, it was 5-all at half-time but Causeway Bay put paid to City’s hopes shortly after play resumed with a converted try to claim the win.
City coach Fung Kai-hang says despite the accumulating losses his side is battling bravely: “We are still adjusting to the Premiership environment. We need to work on doing the basics under pressure, but compared to our last few games I see a lot of improvement. If we keep doing what we are doing and work more on our basic skills we will see some success soon,” said Fung.
While the winless streak wasn’t broken, City did manage their first Premiership point today after collecting the bonus for a loss within seven points.
Additional reporting and image: HKRU