Crime writing is a focus of the 2017 Hong Kong International LiteraryFestival (HKILF) programme and the Festival will feature several famous crime writers including Ian Rankin, one of the most acclaimed authors of the genre. Rankin is famous for his Rebus novels and this year marks the 30th anniversary of Inspector Rebus’ debut in print.
Bestselling British writer Ruth Ware will participate to coincide with the release of her third psychological thriller, The Lying Game. Ware’s second novel, The Woman in Cabin 10, has been on the New York Times bestsellers list for twenty-six weeks. Joining the international line-up is Hong Kong crime writer, Chan Ho-kei. He received the Soji Shimada Award, the biggest mystery award for writing in Chinese, in 2011 with The Man Who Sold the World. While the film rights to his 2014 novel The Borrowed have been bought by director Wong Kar-wai.
Celebrated Japanese novelist Hideo Yokoyama made waves worldwide with his crime thriller Six Four, the first of his books to be translated into English. It sold over a million copies in six days in Japan.
Two leading female novelists will be appearing at the Festival. Kamila Shamsie was long-listed for The Man Booker Prize with her new novel Home Fire. Her other works, including Burnt Shadows and A God in Every Stone, have received numerous literary awards. Canadian short story and novelist Madeleine Thien was short-listed for The Man Booker Prize last year with Do Not Say We Have Nothing.
The HKILF programme will also spotlight Hong Kong poetry with appearances from Nicholas Wong and Louise Ho, one of Hong Kong’s leading contemporary poets in English. Poet, editor and translator Tammy Ho Lai-Ming also returns to HKILF with new works and perspectives to share.
HKILF’s full author line-up will be released in August.
Hong Kong International LiteraryFestival Date: 3-12 November, 2017 Venue: various Tickets: various
There are those who will just look at the score and assume that Hong Kong got thrashed, but that is far from the whole story. The Black Ferns are bigger, stronger, faster and in Portia Woodman have a former Rugby 7s Player of the Year and scorer of 142 tries. Hong Kong’s backline are not the only players to have only seen the back of Woodman’s shirt as sprints past to score.
Yes it was a second heavy defeat, but that disguises a strong hard working committed performance by Hong Kong, typified by Jessica Ho’s try saving tackle in the in-goal area. Natasha Olson-Thorne’s darting runs and resolute tackling and Chong Ka-yan almost grabbing an intercept try which would have been fine reward for her performance.
Coach Jo Hull was obviously disappointed with the enormity of the margin, but wasn’t surprised by just how good the Black Ferns were.
“We played against world-beaters and when they got the ball in in their hands and moved it wide, we just couldn’t stop them,” Hull said. “Credit to them, they came on and played the game they wanted to play, but at the same time, I was proud of our girls.”
On the scoreboard it was all Black Ferns from the word go, with Carla Hohepa crossing within the first minute of the match to set the ball rolling for her side, who are ranked second in the world and, along with England and Canada, are among the favourites for the tournament.
New Zealand raced to a 57-0 lead by the half-time break, with Portia Woodman scoring two first-half tries before exploding in the second half to finish with eight. Kendra Cocksedge was on target from the tee and converted 13 of her side’s 19 tries, while Theresa Fitzpatrick scored two tries, but it wasn’t all negative for Hong Kong.
“I think that we caused them a few problems at the breakdown and we survived the scrum, which was a big one for us,” Hull said. “We did a lot of our basic jobs OK, but you can’t play against a world-class team like that without making mistakes.”
“We held the ball for three or four phases and then they forced an error with their physicality. But we enjoyed it out there and I think the crowd were with us again and that’s given us so much encouragement and energy, it’s been great.”
For a period after half-time Hong Kong held their own against their all-conquering opponents and kept them scoreless while creating some attacking opportunities of their own.
“I think again Ka-yan was good, she’s a little pocket rocket, she just keeps getting up,” Hull said. “She’s a professional rugby player and that’s what her job is and I expect her to be able to do that.”
“I think Royce did a good job today at hooker, she was relentless and at times I think Kelsie did well again with her ball carrying and defensively. Tash gave us some good go-forward and gain-line, which was good.”
With the score at 69-0 at the 59-minute mark after Hong Kong had slowed the Black Ferns’ scoring but as their exertions told and the team tired. New Zealand went on a spree that netted eight tries in the final 21 minutes with five of the eight scored by Woodman alone.
After playing two of the top three sides in the world, Hull is hoping that, along with strengthening their defence, Hong Kong can start to express themselves a bit more with ball in hand. ‘We haven’t done much attacking and when we do have the ball we need to look after it,” she said.
While the scoreboard was worse, this was much improved team performance with Jo Hull and the forwards (mostly) solving their power / weight disadvantage in the scrums with quick feeds and pick-ups by the number 8. Hong Kong still don’t look like troubling the scoreboard… but hopefully they can change that against Wales on Thursday.
No report on this match would be complete without mention of the massive band of travelling Hong Kong fans who loudly kept cheering the team on throughout. And the respect shown by New Zealand who clapped and sang Hong Kong off the pitch at the end of the game. Respect!
The action continues at Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017 on Sunday with teams eager to build on opening day wins or bounce back and get the victories to keep themselves in the hunt for semi-final places given that only the three pool winners are guaranteed to keep their title hopes alive.
The Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017 kicked off with more tries and points scored on opening day than ever before as England, New Zealand, Canada, USA, France and hosts Ireland all tasted victory.
The tournament is capturing the imagination of fans in Ireland and around the world with fans from 196 countries and territories visiting the official website, rwcwomens.com an increase of 550 per cent on WRWC 2014.
Sunday’s action gets underway at 12:00 local time (GMT+1) with the Pool A encounter between New Zealand and Hong Kong at Billings Park here’s a preview of that match and the rest of the day 2 action.
Pool A: New Zealand v Hong Kong
New Zealand captain Fiao’o Faamausili will draw level with Anna Richards and Emma Jensen as her country’s most-capped player when she wears the jersey for the 49th time against Hong Kong.
The hooker is one of only five players retained from the 44-12 win over Wales as coach Glenn Moore looks to keep his squad fresh ahead of the challenges to come. Half-backs Kendra Cocksedge and Victoria Subritzky-Nafatali continue their partnership with sevens stars Sarah Goss and Portia Woodman (pictured) the others, although Goss moves across the back-row.
“The four-day match turnaround puts a lot of pressure on players and we want to ensure they are in the best possible shape for the entire tournament,” explained Moore.
“This is an important game for us. There were certain things we were really pleased about in our match against Wales, but there were also a couple of areas we were disappointed in. We need to improve on those and further build in the areas we did well in. Everyone is looking forward to getting out there again and doing New Zealand proud.”
Hong Kong coach Jo Hull expects New Zealand to be “at another level” and “tougher” than a Canadian side that beat her charges 98-0 on day one, so she knows that their tackling must approve to ensure they don’t give the Black Ferns the space and chance to build momentum.
Only four players will back-up from that opening loss, including captain Chow Mei Nam and centre Natasha Olson-Thorne, with veteran forwards Royce Chan and Christine Gordon coming in along with promising teenager centre Kelsie Bouttle.
“We’re feeling positive and excited to play New Zealand. We’ve had two tests against non-Asian opponents in our history and now we’re playing the second and third ranked teams in the world within the space of a week. For the 23rd ranked team in the world it’s a huge honour and a real positive for us,” insisted Hull.
“There’s a lot of pride in the locker room over our spirited performance against Canada, but we aren’t satisfied with how we played. We take heart from our performance, but we know we still have a lot to improve on. Mentally we’re in a good place. We’re not okay with losing 98-0 and personal accountability in our performance is hugely important and has to improve. That’s the challenge for us over the next few days.
“Some real positives are emerging. We showed warrior toughness against Canada, but it’s not good enough to leave it at that. We have to back that up now. We need a better performance than last week and against another world-class team.”
Pool A: Canada v Wales
Canada, unlike their main Pool A rivals New Zealand, have elected to retain virtually the same starting line-up from the record 98-0 defeat of Hong Kong for this meeting with Wales, the only change sees try-scorer Elissa Alarie move from full-back to the left wing with Julianne Zussman filling the vacated 15 jersey. The player to drop out of the squad is Frédérique Rajotte.
The Welsh match will bring up a personal milestone for captain Kelly Russell as she becomes the third Canadian to reach 50 test caps, following in the footsteps of two legends of Canadian rugby in Gillian Florence – a veteran of five World Cups – and Maria Gallo, who presented the team with their jerseys ahead of the Hong Kong match.
“It was a good start. I think the score reflected that we played as a team and we had a great flow,” admitted Magali Harvey, Canada’s five-try scorer against Hong Kong. “That was our first game and every game from now on are going to get harder. It was very exciting to see that we were able to keep going for 80 minutes, that said we are also aware that we are in a tough pool. We just want to put all the odds on our side, so the more points we score the better it is for us and the harder it is for teams to catch up to us.
“I think Wales will be more of a technical team (than Hong Kong) and a bigger team too so it is going to be more of a physical game and we have to bring it to them so they know we are not messing around either.”
Wales coach Rowland Phillips, meanwhile, has made two changes from the side beaten 44-12 by New Zealand on the same Billings Park pitch with Sian Moore given the nod at scrum-half this time and Jess Kavanagh-Williams named on the wing for her first taste of World Cup action. Replacement hooker Morfudd Ifans is in line to make her debut, while experienced back-row Shona Powell-Hughes takes her place on the bench after recovering from injury suffered in a warm-up match.
“We’ll be looking to cut out the unforced errors against Canada, who are a well-organised, strong and very athletic side,” said Phillips. “We’ve spoken a lot about taking positives out of the game against New Zealand, and that’s something we’ve been working on in the build-up to tomorrow’s match.
“We’re lucky as coaches to be overseeing a highly motivated group of players. Almost as soon as we came off the pitch on Wednesday, we started looking at what we needed to do to challenge what is clearly a very good Canada side. That preparation – which has included a lot of hard work on the training pitch – means we’ll take to the field full of confidence tomorrow.”
Pool B: England v Italy
England coach Simon Middleton had always planned to ring the changes and give everyone a run-out across the opening match days and so only five players are retained from the 56-5 win over Spain for the defending champions’ second meeting with Italy this year.
The Red Roses were pushed hard by a determined Italy in the Six Nations with Amy Wilson-Hardy among their try-scorers that February day and the winger comes in for her World Cup debut in place of Kay Wilson, who takes a well-earned rest after her four-try haul against Spain.
Danielle Waterman and Rachael Burford keep their places in the backline and are joined in the starting line-up by England’s two other players in their fourth tournament in prop Rochelle Clark and second-row Tamara Taylor. Emily Scarratt assumes the captaincy with Sarah Hunter starting on the bench against the Azzurre.
“We have options available to us in terms of selection and running different combinations. We want to take full advantage of the depth, talent and experience in the squad. Our aim is to continually build and improve on performance, the team have recovered well and have been working hard over the past two days to ensure we are fully prepared for the next challenge,” said Middleton.
“We are expecting a tough and physical encounter. Italy have caused us plenty of problems in the past and are an incredibly talented side.”
Italy coach Andrea Di Giandomenico has largely kept his backline intact with the talented Beatrice Rigoni’s selection at inside-centre in place of Sofia Stefan the only change. He has, though, rung the changes in his forward pack, one of which was enforced after hooker Lucia Cammarano suffered a double leg fracture during their 24-12 loss to 1991 champions USA on day one.
Melissa Bettoni moves from tight-head to hooker to replace her in a new look front-row with Marta Ferrari and Lucia Gai, while Valeria Fedrighi comes into the second-row for her first start and Ilaria Arrighetti takes her place in a re-jigged back-row.
Captain Sara Barattin and Manuela Furlan were among Italy’s try scorers in that Six Nations meeting and will be eager for the Azzurre to give the defending champions plenty of food for thought in this meeting as they look to bounce back from that day one loss.
“Facing England is always challenging,” admitted Barattin. “They made a great start in the first game against Spain and are here to defend the title. In the last two matches against them in the Six Nations, we played well and put them in trouble. We will give 100 per cent to follow our game plan.”
Pool B: USA v Spain
USA coach Pete Steinberg is very aware of the threat Spain pose with many of their players switching between sevens and 15s on a regular basis and knows his players must put them under pressure defensively if they are to continue their perfect record against Las Leonas, having won both previous World Cup meetings, 28-16 in 1998 and 23-5 four years later.
“One of the things I feel like we can be really good at is line speed,” explained Steinberg. “Spain loves to move the ball, so we really need to put them under some defensive pressure. Line speed and really getting after the contest at the tackle area will be the big things on defence.”
“Our structure wasn’t quite right (against Italy), so we weren’t able to source the rucks when it got wide the way we wanted to. We’ll have to make sure our structure is right, but we’re pretty happy with where we are.”
Steinberg has made only three changes to his starting line-up, Sam Pankey coming in at hooker and Abby Gustaitis, a try-scorer against Italy, getting the nod in the second-row. The other change comes at inside-centre where USA Sevens captain Alev Kelter is rewarded for her performance off the bench with a place alongside Nicole Heavirland in a backline with a strong sevens flavour.
His Spain counterpart Jose Antonio Barrio has also freshened up his squad with a number of changes, some of them positional for this meeting between the sides ranked seventh and eighth in the World Rugby Women’s Rankings.
Isabel Rico and Rocio Garcia bring plenty of experience into the forward pack, while Uribarri Barrutieta and Vanesa Rial come in for their first WRWC 2017 start in the backline.
Pool C: Ireland v Japan
The two teams will know what to expect from each other having played two trial matches at UCD back in June with Ireland coming away with narrow 24-22 and 24-15 victories over a side that has since been crowned Asian champions once again.
Ireland will know they must win by a more comfortable margin to bolster their semi-final hopes, having been the only one of the six victorious teams on day one not to collect a bonus point following a narrow 19-17 win over Australia.
Two of the try-scorers in that match, Sophie Spence and Ciara Griffin, come into the starting line-up for this match among a number of changes up front, while Nicole Cronin will make her test debut, partnering the experienced Nora Stapleton at half-back. Hannah Tyrrell switches to the wing to make way for Mairead Coyne at full-back, while Katie Fitzhenry will line-up alongside Sene Naoupu in the centres.
“We had a really tough encounter with Australia on Sunday evening in the opening game, and while we came away with the win, there a number of areas that we’ve focused on over the past two days that we will need to improve on for tomorrow’s test with Japan,” admitted Tierney.
“We know that the Japanese are going to throw everything at us tomorrow evening. They’re very fit, they like to move the ball wide and they are very quick to the breakdown.
Japan, meanwhile, have been dealt a huge blow with the loss of their talisman number eight Mateitoga Bogidraumainadave (pictured), who fractured her leg in the loss to France on Wednesday and has been replaced in the tournament squad by hooker Chihiro Kobayashi.
This tournament-ending injury and the three-match suspension for centre Makiko Tomita following her red card in that defeat are the only changes coach Goshi Arimizu has made to his starting line-up for this meeting with hosts Ireland.
Maki Takano is given the unenviable task of replacing Bogidraumainadave at number eight, with Riho Kurogi coming in for Tomita at inside-centre.
Pool C: France v Australia
Fresh from a 72-14 win over Japan on day one, France coach Samuel Cherouk has rung the changes for their meeting with Australia, a side ranked two places below them in the World Rugby Women’s Rankings coming into the tournament.
With Gaëlle Mignot dropping down to the bench, centre Elodie Poublan takes over as captain for what will be her 67th test outing for Les Bleues and will have Carla Neisen as her centre partner with hat-trick scorer Caroline Ladagnous named as a replacement.
Flanker Romane Menager, who impressed with two long-range run-ins against Japan, continues in the back-row with Safi N’Diaye and Marjorie Mayans, who comes into the starting line-up. Two others retaining their place are half-backs Yanna Rivoalen and Caroline Drouin.
Australia coach Paul Verrell, though, is eager to build combinations and has therefore kept his changes to just one in his starting line-up, Sarah Riordan coming in to partner Olympic gold medallist Sharni Williams in the centres with Kayla Sauvao dropping to the bench.
“Our forwards competed well against an experienced Irish pack and they’ll face a similar challenge this Sunday against the French,” said Verrell.
“Our backline showed they can be very dangerous with the ball in hand, but we need them to continue to build as we lead into the match against the French. The addition of Sarah Riordan will provide us with another strong ball running option in the midfield.
“The team proved to themselves what they’re capable of in that match against the Irish and now we need them to continue to perform at that level, whilst also looking to grow and develop as a collective unit.”
As Hong Kong prepare to stare down the Haka challenge, coach Jo Hull has made several changes to the squad for the match against New Zealand who are ranked second in the World. Royce Chan Leong-sze starts at hooker and Christine Gordon at no.8 in an effort to prevent the Black Ferns from establishing too much momentum in the forwards.
Changes in the backline see ‘BB’ Lee Tsz-ting start at fly-half with Kelsie Bouttle getting her first start at centre and Lau Sze-wa coming in at full-back. The changes are a part of Hull’s strategy to manage the load of the Rugby World Cup.
“We have four games just as hard as Canada, so the selection reflects the need to use all of the squad to manage that. Part of it is managing the player requirement, but also getting selection right for New Zealand,” said Hull.
“We’ve gone with the team that we think gives us the best chance to halt their momentum. Defensively, we have some strong players on the pitch and are asking our stalwarts to get amongst them. At the same time, we’ve gone with BB [Lee Tsz-ting] at 10 because she gives us a nice attacking option. If we have ball in hand we want to play some attractive rugby,” added Hull.
Hong Kong will have to dig deep to fend off a New Zealand team that although slow out of the blocks easily defeated Wales 44-12 win.
“Our tackling must improve. We have got to get them to ground quickly and stop them from building any momentum. We gave Canada too much time with the ball. You can only hold out so long defensively if you are letting your opponents generate all of the momentum.”
“Canada had big, world-class athletes and you can’t give them space with the ball. It will be more of the same against New Zealand and I actually expect them to be tougher than Canada. They will have found their stride after that first game against Wales.”
“New Zealand are a seasoned side, so I’m expecting them to be at another level. They are more clinical than Canada. We forced 11 errors against Canada. New Zealand won’t allow that,” said Hull.
Hull’s side are aware of the challenge but eager to front up again on the world stage. “We’re feeling positive and excited to play New Zealand. We’ve had two tests against non-Asian opponents in our history and now we’re playing the 2nd and 3rd ranked teams in the world within the space of a week. For the 23rd ranked team in the world it’s a huge honour and a real positive for us.”
“There’s a lot of pride in the locker room over our spirited performance against Canada, but we aren’t satisfied with how we played. We take heart from our performance, but we know we still have a lot to improve on.”
“Mentally we’re in a good place. We’re not okay with losing 98-0 and personal accountability in our performance is hugely important and has to improve. That’s the challenge for us over the next few days.”
Hull said her team is thrilled by the experience of being at the World Cup and has been buoyed by strong support from a large contingent of travelling fans as well as the neutrals inside the stadium.
“It’s been incredible. The team has been touched by the support we’ve received. Support from the crowd really lifted our performance against Canada. Even at 70 minutes, we were attacking, lifted by the crowd, through what was a rough 80 minutes. We need that to continue over the coming days.”
“Some real positives are emerging. We showed warrior toughness against Canada, but it’s not good enough to leave it at that. We have to back that up now. We need a better performance than last week and against another world-class team,” Hull added.
Hong Kong Squad versus New Zealand:
Forwards: 1. LAU Nga-wun, Tammy; 2. CHAN Leong-sze, Royce; 3 WONG Yuen-shan; 4. CHOW Mei-nam (captain); 5. TSANG Sin-yan; 6. Amelie SEURE; 7. Winnie SIU; 8. Christine GORDON. Backs: 9. Jessica HO Wai-on; 10. LEE Tsz-ting 11. CHONG Ka-yan; 12. Kelsie BOUTTLE; 13. Natasha OLSON-THORNE; 14. Laurel CHOR Lik-fung; 15. LAU Sze-wah.Reserves: 16. HO Hoi-lam; 17. LEE Ka-shun; 18. PUN Wai-yan; 19. CHENG Ka-chi, Christy; 20. CHAN Ka-yan; 21. Lindsay VARTY; 22. Rose HOPEWELL-FONG Siu-lan; 23. Colleen TJOSVOLD
Xabi Fernández and his in-form MAPFRE team claimed their second victory in Leg Zero qualifying with another commanding performance in the build-up to the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18.
MAPFRE had a lead of seven nautical miles when they crossed the finish line off the iconic French sailing city of Saint-Malo.
Team Brunel took second place in their first race sailing with new recruit Peter Burling, the Olympic gold medalist and America’s Cup winning helmsman, whose signing was announced just hours before the fleet’s departure from England’s south coast.
Dongfeng Race Team, the Chinese entry with a French skipper, Charles Caudrelier, completed the podium to maintain their own excellent form in the series – and were followed by Vestas 11th Hour Racing, team AkzoNobel, Turn the Tide on Plastic and Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag.
MAPFRE’s latest victory was barely in doubt in a race they dominated following a decisive moment shortly after the Plymouth start. “It’s a very good result for us, and it’s been a really good leg for us from beginning to end,” said MAPFRE skipper Xabi Fernández. “We made some good choices going offshore, finding the sea breeze and beating the current, as we watched the other teams struggle with the current. I’m really pleased with our result.”
MAPFRE chose to dive south with Vestas 11th Hour Racing and Turn the Tide on Plastic. The others chose a route down the coast that required an exhausting gybing duel. When the fleet came back together, the offshore option had paid off, and Brunel and Dongfeng Race Team switched sides to choose the southern option with MAPFRE and Vestas 11th Hour Racing.
The fleet then had to negotiate a barrier of light winds that blocked the route. The calms were narrower in the south and the four boats that had invested in this option slowed but continued moving whereas Sun Hung Kai/ Scallywag went backwards on the tide, completely becalmed.
After the turning mark by the Needles and a drag race across the English Channel, excitement awaited in the tidal acceleration zone next to the French coast.
Just like stepping onto a moving walkway at the airport, the speeds on every boat jumped from 13 knots to 19 as they were pushed by a river of current in the ocean. From there, MAPFRE were never challenged.
For Burling, it was a first experience of racing onboard a One Design Volvo Ocean 65 – and he said that the short race to France was the perfect introduction to the Volvo Ocean Race.
“It’s been great to get out and race – I have a lot to learn but Leg Zero is a really good way for me to ease into this,” said the Kiwi. “I think we’re in good stead for the future considering how little training this team has done.”
Leg Zero, stage 3 results, Plymouth to Saint-Malo:
1. MAPFRE elapsed time 0629 UTC
2. Team Brunel 0710
3. Dongfeng Race Team 0719
4. Vestas 11th Hour Racing 0728
5. Team AkzoNobel 0732
6. Turn the Tide on Plastic 0835
7. Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag 0908
The teams will complete Leg Zero qualifying with a race from Saint-Malo to Lisbon, starting on Sunday at 1050 UTC and with an ETA of Wednesday.
MAPFRE now have a three-point advantage at the top of the Leg Zero standings, with two wins and a runners-up spot from the three races to date. While an overall winner will be declared, no points will be carried forward to the Volvo Ocean Race itself, which starts on 22 October.
Overall Leg Zero standings after 3 of 4 races:
1. MAPFRE 23 points
2. Team Brunel 20
3. Dongfeng Race Team 19
4. Team AkzoNobel 15
5. Vestas 11th Hour Racing 12
6. Turn the Tide on Plastic 9
7. Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag 7
What a wonderful sight to see Hong Kong running onto the pitch at a World Cup. The stadium reverberating to the sound of “Hong Kong! Hong Kong!” from a packed crowd.
As for the match, it was always going to be this way, unlike in football minnows rarely if ever beat the top ranked teams – Canada are third in the world with almost double the ranking points of Hong Kong. But the only way you can improve is to play better teams and while they didn’t score Hong Kong certainly had their moments.
The score 98-0 score does and doesn’t reflect the match. Hong Kong one speedster, Canada several and in the scrum size really does tell. Canada are a big fit side and played some beautiful rugby – hitting the line at full speed on numerous occasions and powerful forward runs.
But credit to Jo Hull’s side, Hong Kong have improved they’ve cut out a lot of the individual errors and swarmed the breakdown forcing several turnovers. And even as the scoreboard ticked over the team refused to lie down enjoying some fine periods of possession especially in the second-half.
“We actually fought for the entire game, we asked them to play like warriors and they did. It’s the reality of where we are, we’re at a World Cup, we’re trying our hardest and I’m proud of them,” Hull said. “We made some silly mistakes, which we will obviously look at, and it’s hard to play when you don’t have the ball.”
Hong Kong battled hard on defence in the opening stages but it took just four minutes for centre Andrea Burk to open the scoring for Canada.
Tries to fullback Elissa Alarie, winger Magali Harvey and skipper Kelly Russell followed as Canada pushed their lead 24-0 by the end of the first quarter. There was plenty more to come before the break, with Harvey scoring twice more and Russell and Burk landing first-half doubles for a half-time score of 46-0.
Canada continued to score freely after the break with Alarie, Amanda Thornborough and Alex Tessier all scoring as Hong Kong fell behind 65-0 after 50 minutes.
A 51st-minute yellow card to winger Chong Ka-yan – who collided with her opponent in the air – didn’t help Hong Kong’s cause, however Canada’s Olivia DeMerchant found herself in the bin soon after and Hong Kong’s most promising attacking thrusts took place then.
It amounted to nothing, though, and Harvey’s fourth try and one to replacement Brittany Waters kept the scoreboard ticking over for Canada. Tries to Russell, Thornborough and a fifth to Harvey completed the rout, with Hull refusing to get caught up in the result.
“A 98-point margin is always a surprise, no coach is going to be happy with that. But I’m not going to dwell on that, it’s a number, fair play to Canada, they were excellent, they were clinical, they’ve got very athletic ball carriers and they deserved that win today.”
“Our players will take a lot of heart from it and I hope the crowd felt it as well, the fact that the crowd were behind us at every 10-minute mark today shows the character that we played with,” said Hull.
Hull was pleased with the impact of her subs, in particular 18-year-old centre Kelsie Bouttle, and also praised the work of tireless winger Chong Ka-yan.
“She showed that resilience today. I wanted to get her with the ball in hand a little bit more, but she showed she’s a class player and I was pleased with her today,” Hull said of Chong.
“Kelsie made an impact when she came on and I think our front row did their job today even though our scrum was going backwards. In terms of physicality, when we had a one-on-one opportunity I think we managed but once they got momentum, we were in a bit of trouble.”
Canada were quick to pounce, twice intercepting the ball and streaking away to the try line. “They’re very fast and have very hot line speed,” Hull said. “That’s what quality sides do, they look at where they can take those little one percenters and today they took them.
“There were periods where we turned them over, we turned them over at the breakdown a couple of times and we forced some mistakes. They’re wins for us and I think we did match them in some areas, but it is difficult to play with your scrum going backwards.”
The relentless pressure of the Canadians took its toll on Hong Kong, with winger Aggie Poon Pak-yan one player nursing an injury ahead of Sunday’s clash with New Zealand.
The long wait is almost over as Hong Kong prepare to make history. Here’s the team sheet for Hong Kong’s first ever game at the Rugby World Cup.
Captain Chow Mei Nam had this to say “It is the first time to be here and be in a World Cup. The Hong Kong team is ready for it. We want to take that challenge and see where we are.”
To promote the upcoming Asia Dive Expo in Shenzhen (8-10 September) Hong Kong Divers hosted a party at Shelter on 8 August, 2017.
Click on any photo for the full gallery of images