After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the Duke of Wellington said that the only sight sadder than a battle won, is a battle lost. With all due respect to the Duke, he missed something. The only thing sadder than a battle lost, is a battle that is lost when you’re sat on the sidelines, unable and incapable of influencing the outcome. This is how your correspondent spent the last thirty minutes of the Leighton Asia HKCC Babes encounter with HK Scottish on Sunday, shouting impotently from the touchline as time slipped away from the HKCC Babes.
Sporting battles, in fairness, have little ultimately at stake, but the passions on the pitch speak to the opposite. HK Scottish knew from early on that they were pinned down against a pack that was superior in every sense – rucking, scrummaging, making the hard yards; but they had strong kicking ability to draw on, exploiting a fairly common weakness in Ladies rugby that is pressure under the high ball. Scottish also resisted the forwards’ pressure well: two early Babes tries, products of team efforts and massive adrenaline, were cancelled out for for double movement and referee unsighted. So despite the run of play, after thirty minutes there were zero points on the Board.
A fourth failure to retreat ten at a penalty saw the Babes incur a costly yellow before the half was out, matched with a second in the closing stages of play. When it seems like the deck is stacked against you, players come out tougher and more resolute than ever, but the tide was against the Babes here, and the referee awarded a Scottish try either side of the half. There could be no disputing the second, a brilliant play off a penalty by the Scottish scrum half, surely their player of the game, but the first was more contentious – both a possible knock on and some offside play at the ruck being pointed out vocally from the watching supporters.
At this point, the author becomes a mere bystander – watching (injured) from the sidelines. In the second half, Babes soon adopted the Scottish tactics, and an excellent grubber kick and chase from Babes’ player of the game Harriet Jamieson set up the perfect ruck in the left corner for wing Steph Zhang to dive over for her first 15s try. The chase was on, a clear goal in sight, 12-5, as HK Scottish themselves changed tactics, avoiding the kick and clinging to possession, timing out the uprising.
As the minutes ticked away, and the referee allowed interminable scrummaging resets, the desire of HKCC became yet more positive, and even more apparent. Each player stepped up, demanding the ball, demanding the opportunity to be heard. With HKCC Babes spirit still holding up high, a forth try was made but unfortunately disallowed by the referee for double movement. And as the sun slipped away behind the skyscrapers and night descended on Kowloon, it became clearer that no matter what the outcome, it was worth stepping up to the fight; that the only thing worse, was sitting it out.
HKCC Babes
Eva Rona, Cheryl Gourley, Anna Holmes, Sarah Higgins, Carolyn Champion, Wawa Li,
Zoe Wong, Emily Tuck, Lynda Nazer, Julia Mason, Serene Yee, Harriet Jamieson, Tinley Wong, Steph Zhang, Wendy Sham.
Substitutes: Joanna Harvey, Lainie Man, Suet Yee Tam, Zoe Wong, Brenda Chan
Tries: Steph Zhang
