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HK Women’s Rugby Sevens: 7-8 April, 2016

The 19th Hong Kong Women’s Sevens gets under way tomorrow. The two day tournament features ten teams from across the globe competing in two pools. Pool A contains France, South Africa, Kazakhstan, China and Kenya while Hong Kong are in Pool B with Asia champions Japan, Argentina, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

The top two teams after pool play compete in the Cup semi-final with the final played in the HK Stadium at 17:24, at the HK Sevens, in front of 40,000 fans.

Hong Kong enter the tournament under the leadership of new captain Natasha Olson-Thorne after injuries sidelined long-time captain Royce Chan Leong Sze and last season’s able stand-in, Christy Cheng Ka Chi.

Olson-Thorne provides pace, power and an experienced hand after serving in the vice captain’s role in last November’s Olympic sevens qualifiers and having appeared in five Hong Kong Women’s Sevens previously.

Come join in the fun and watch some great rugby where skill and finesse matter more than the brute power of the men’s game. Thursday matches take place at King’s Park with the first kick-off at 9am. Friday’s games are at the HK Football Club, first kick-off at 9am. Entry is free on both days.

The tournament will also be live-streamed at:
http://www.hirugby.com/live

Hong Kong Women’s Rugby Sevens
When: 7-8 April, 2016
Where: 7 April: Kings Park, 8 April: HK Football Club, Final: HK Stadium
How much: Free
More info: www.facebook.com/hkwr.sevens

Natasha Olson-Thorne Captain’s Hong Kong

Pulling on the shirt, taking a cap to represent your country is a special moment in anyone’s sporting life. Winning tournaments and trophies are regarded as success in sport today, where it’s the winning not the taking part that has become all. But their can be no higher honour in any sport than to Captain your country. To join that elite band of people who can take the hopes, desires and expectations of a nation upon their shoulders at the same time as uniting team-mates to perform better than the sum of their individual skills while still giving their personal all.

Natasha Olson-Thorne Captain’s Hong Kong for the first time at this her sixth Hong Kong Women’s Rugby Sevens (HKWRS) and coach Anna Richards is confident the 23-year-old winger will handle the added responsibility with aplomb.

“She works really hard and sets a really good example for the rest of the team,” Richards said. “She’s got a good rugby brain as well, so I think she will be able to handle it very well.”

Olson-Thorne has been a crucial part of the Hong Kong backline in the sevens format for a long time and boasts experience that belies her age. She made her international sevens debut in Hong Kong in 2011 and has filled the vice-captaincy slot on a number of occasions, including during last year’s Asia Rugby Sevens Series and Olympic qualifiers.

Olson-Thorne also skippered a Hong Kong development squad at the Margaret River Sevens early last year and is hopeful that, with a few tweaks to her game, she has what is takes to lead by example.

“I probably have to be a bit more vocal and I need to make sure I keep lifting the team up so we’re in the right spot and in the right frame of mind,” she said. “It’s going to be interesting. I’m excited about it. I’m just hoping I can keep the team on the right track going in to the Sevens.”

Olson-Thorne, who was born in the US but has spent 22 of her 23 years in Hong Kong, is plucky about the chances of the side she will lead and hopes that good early form will give Hong Kong the momentum they need to improve on last year’s semi-final loss. “Obviously our goal is to get into the stadium this year,” she said.

“We’re feeling quite positive going in and we’re excited as well because it’s our first tournament of this year. We want to start strong on day one like we did last year. We are looking forward to going in with all guns blazing and smashing it.”

Ahead of her sixth HKWRS, Olson-Thorne is wary of the challenge that awaits and is ready to embrace the opportunity to play against some quality opposition.

This year’s tournament features ten teams from across the globe. Hong Kong are in Pool B with Asia champions Japan, Argentina, Thailand and Sri Lanka. Pool A sees France, South Africa, Kazakhstan, China and Kenya. Both France and Japan are playing on this season’s World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series.

“One thing I really like about the Hong Kong Sevens is that we’ve got France and South Africa coming, we have Argentina coming, we have Kenya coming, so there’s a lot of countries that we usually don’t get a chance to play against that come and play in the Hong Kong Women’s Sevens,” she said.

“It’s just nice to play against someone different, someone with a different style, and that really helps you to learn and develop.”

Olson-Thorne first developed her love for rugby at the age of 15 at Sha Tin College after trying her hand at a number of other sports and quickly progressed from there to club rugby with the Flying Kukris.

The Flying Kukris’ lack of numbers at under 19 level saw her move to Borrelli Walsh URSC Tigers, with her Hong Kong 15s debut coming in 2010.

Throughout the journey, Olson-Thorne has never struggled for motivation: “The reason that I play rugby is that it’s fun and I enjoy it,” she said. “I’ve always had a lot of sports in my family. My teammates motivate me as well. You can’t play for a team that you don’t like.”

With an older sister and an older brother, as well as a younger brother, sport and family have gone hand-in-hand for Olson-Thorne and the HKWRS presents a unique opportunity.

“It’s the one time when we get to play at home in front of a home crowd,” Olson-Thorne said. “It’s awesome being able to play in front of my family and friends.” Outside of being a professional rugby player, Olson-Thorne is a qualified Divemaster and, after completing a Bachelor of Science in Exercise and Health at The University of Hong Kong last year.

“When I’m not doing rugby now, I’m pretty much at home with my family and my cat just relaxing and having fun,” she said. “I do want to pursue further education and try and get a masters degree. I also love scuba diving, so I might try and take that up again when I’ve got a bit more time. I don’t really have a plan at the moment, I’m just kind of seeing how it goes at the moment.”

Hong Kong Women’s Sevens Squad
Natasha Olson-Thorne (captain), Candy Cheng, Tsz Ting (vice-captain), Chong Ka Yan, Adrienne Garvey, Christine Gordon, Colleen Tjosvold, Kwong Sau Yan, Melody Li Nim Yan, Lee Tsz Ting, Nam Ka Man, Poon Pak Yan, Lindsay Varty.

Coach: Anna Richards, Asst. Coach: Mark Komar, Manager: Dannii Cheung

Women’s Rugby Grand Championship Finals Results 2016

Grand Championship

Valley Black 12-10 Gai Wu Falcons
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 16:30

National 15s WNL1-A: Grand Championship

City Sparkles 8-5 Valley Red
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 15:00

National 15s WNL1-B: Grand Championship

HKCC 17-7 HK Scottish
@ KGV, Kick-off: 16:30

National 10s: Grand Championship

Tin Shui Wai 5-10 Revolution SRC
@ Happy Valley, Kick-off: 16:30

Valley and Gai Wu Contest Third Straight Women’s Grand Final

Valley Black will take on Gai Wu Falcons for the third successive Grand Final between the two clubs at King’s Park today (16.30). Valley were unbeaten in league play for the second consecutive year extending their winning streak to 28 matches – the longest such streak in Hong Kong Rugby.

It is a fitting match-up as the two clubs have dominated the elite edge of women’s rugby in recent seasons. The last six Grand Finals have seen at least one of the two sides taking part, with Valley claiming four titles to Gai Wu’s two during that period. In their head-to-heads over the past two finals, the clubs split the honours with Falcons handing Valley its last loss in domestic competition in 2014, while Valley ran out 20-10 winners over Falcons to claim the title in 2015.

The Falcons enter the match as the underdogs after having dropped both of their games to Valley this season, a 15-3 defeat in Round 7, followed by a more comprehensive 49-12 loss in their most recent outing on the last weekend of the season, when Valley fullback Olivia Coady ran riot for five tries. Despite the margin of defeat, the 12 points posted by Falcons is the most that Valley conceded to any opponent in the league, when they scored a staggering 565 points in 12 games.

Valley continue to reap the rewards of a long-term vision implemented when coach Chris Garvey arrived at the club following its 2012 Grand Championship. “We lost 9 players after that season and there was a lot of work to do to re-build. The next season we had 25 players competing across the 15s and 10s league. I remember one Saturday when we had back-to-back games and had to finish a 10s match with seven players on the pitch, pulling girls off so we could start a 15s game on the next pitch with 12 players.

“But we gave ourselves three years to re-build with a focus on sustainable growth. We focused on our infrastructure as if we got that right, the results should take care of themselves. We were able to get good coaches and recruit some strong players not just from overseas, but also from local universities and schools. Now we’re at the point where there are only three or four players running out that aren’t playing for Hong Kong or eligible to play for Hong Kong. We have two full squads this season and our seconds went from winning only one match last year to reaching the Grand Championship final tomorrow,” Garvey adds.

Valley’s numbers are holding strong for the re-match with Gai Wu says Garvey, “There are always a few niggles and we’ve had to leave vice captain Karen So on the bench, as she hasn’t fully recovered from injury, which hurts because she’s a prop/hooker and our front row has been a bit light this year. But other than that, we’ve held up well.”

That weakness up front contrasts with Gai Wu, whose main strength is its forward pack and set piece. For Garvey that means a contrast in styles and strategies in the final: “Our backbone is the midfield. We’re good at broken play and anything off the cuff is to our advantage. Our weakness is probably our set piece. The forwards have scored tries for us, but not as many as in previous seasons. I’m being a perfectionist really, as the forwards have done the job for us this season, but I don’t think we’ve developed our play up front as much as we have across the backline this season.”

“Gai Wu’s strengths are their set piece and overall fitness, which is slightly better than ours. They have a solid kicking game and I think they will look to play very structured rugby. But I’m confident. We don’t have to chase this game or change our style, we just need to keep calm, soak up any pressure and trust our systems. If we can restrict Gai Wu to two or three phases, we’re in with a chance, but if they’re still in it with ten minutes remaining anything can happen.”

Falcons coach Lai Yiu Pang is angling to have his side in just that position: “Last week’s win over USRC Tigers gave us a lot of confidence and we’re picking up momentum late in the year. All the pressure is on Valley and we’re optimistic for tomorrow.”

Lai knows that defence is the key to Gai Wu’s championship hopes, saying: “Defence needs to be our primary focus. We need to put Valley under heavy pressure and that starts when they have the ball.”

While missing the inspirational but injured Christy Cheng Ka Chi, a leader for Falcons and the Hong Kong Sevens squad, Lai says the rest of his squad are fit. “Up front we have everyone we’d like to have and our training this week, and really since the end of the league, has been positive with over 30 players out for every session. That was a big help in getting us to the stage to achieve what we needed to in the semi-final over the Tigers.”

All today’s Grand Championship Final’s fixture details here.

photos: Takumi Photography

Women’s Rugby Sevens Teams Announced

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2015/HK-Sevens-2015-Friday/i-SgZZ4xr

Women’s rugby in Hong Kong has been going from strength to strength in recent years and this has been reflected in the national 15s and 7s team results; highlighted by the 7s team winning their first ever Asia Rugby Women’s Sevens Series tournament in Qingdao last September.

So it’s more than a little disappointing that the male dominated hierarchy of the HKRU continue to remain so blind to the attractions of women’s rugby, especially in an Olympic year when Hong Kong are still in with a chance of a place in Rio. With women’s rugby 7s expanding fast globally that only ten teams, down from twelve in recent year’s, will take part in the 19th Hong Kong Women’s Rugby Sevens (HKWRS) is depressing.

bc has supported the Women’s 7s since its inception and know that teams want to come to play, and the national side needs the experience of playing teams outside Asia, but cite costs as the main problem in attending the tournament. The HKRU is awash with cash but the men in charge remain too cheap to, and blind to the benefits of, financially supporting the expansion and improvement of the HKWRS. The nine countries, from four continents joining Hong Kong are: Argentina, China, France, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Tournament Director Ruth Mitchell and former Hong Kong captain said of the announcement “I’m excited at how the tournament has progressed over the years. Hong Kong is the longest established women’s sevens tournament in the world and we have had 38 international teams participate over the past 19 years. This year, for the first time, all of the teams have played in the tournament before, so we can expect a high standard of play and with plenty of Asian teams involved, the rivalry is sure to be intense,”

Of the participating teams, France, Kenya and Japan have already qualified for the Rio Summer Games in August, where rugby 7s will make it’s debut at the Olympics. France and Japan are also participating on the Women’s Sevens Series this season with France in fourth place in the standings and Japan eleventh of the 12 core teams. Both teams have figured in recent HKWRS Cup finals. Japan lost to Canada, 19-12, last year while France was beat by Canada, 24-0, in 2014.

Argentina, China, Kazakhstan and Hong Kong will compete in the Olympic repechage tournament in Dublin in June, making the HKWRS an important preparation event for the final stage of Olympic qualification. The winner in Dublin will be the 12th and final team to qualify for the Women’s Rugby Sevens competition at the Rio Games.

As always, Asia is well represented with the hosts Hong Kong, China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka and Thailand all taking part. Japan and China finished first and second in Asia last season with Hong Kong hot on their heels in third place in the region.

Hong Kong Women’s Sevens coach Anna Richards commented on the field assembled saying, “There is a good range of teams this year with sides from Africa, Europe and South America, alongside the top teams from Asia. It’s always good to get a chance to play against teams with different styles then those we see in the region and it will be helpful for us as prepare for the Olympic qualifier in Ireland where there will be 16 teams from all over the world.”

Last year, Hong Kong, after beating beat Samoa in the quarterfinal, narrowly missed out on reaching their first cup final losing the semi 10-5 to Japan. Another close result went against the hosts when they lost the third place play-off to the Netherlands, 14-7. It was Hong Kong’s best ever performance in the HKWRS and set the stage for a strong run in the Asia Rugby Women’s Sevens series later in the year.

“We got on a roll last year with a great start on the opening day when we beat China and Kazakhstan. Those performances gave us the self-belief we needed to go out and compete both on day two and later in the year on the Asian series. We will need another fast start this year so a lot will be riding on what pool we are drawn in as we need to finish either first or second in our group to advance to the cup,” Richards said. The tournament draw for the HKWRS will be held alongside the Hong Kong Sevens draw on Monday, 14 March.

Complicating matters for Richards is a lack of warm-up events for the women’s team ahead of the HKWRS: “Last year we had two tournaments in the build up to the sevens, but this year we don’t have any. We’ve been training really hard and are working closely with the Sports Science team at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, but I know the girls are excited about the prospect of our first tournament action since November last year.”

Richards has had to get creative to accentuate the build-up campaign. The sevens training squad will play a series of training games against a touring side from Princeton University on March 16.

Richards, a former New Zealand international, has also negotiated with the New Zealand Rugby Union to organise a group of New Zealand Sevens development players who the HKRU are flying up to Hong Kong, where they will mix with top local players in a Barbarians format, for a two-day training camp at the Hong Kong Sports Institute on March 19 and 20.

The HKWRS tournament in on Thursday and Friday, (7-8 April) with the opening day’s action at Kings Park in Kowloon. Day Two will be held at the Hong Kong Football Club (8 April) with the final again being held beneath the lights at the HK Stadium as a main focus of the opening day of the Hong Kong Sevens.

Women’s Rugby Fixtures – 12 March, 2016

WNL1 B Semi-final Match Report: HKCC 48-7 Tai Po Dragons – 5 March, 2016

HKCC went into the knock-out stages of the season still on a high from the previous weekend’s sealing of the WNL1 B league title. Alex Tarleton reports as HKCC played the Tai Po Dragons hoping to reach a Grand Championships final for the first time since its reincarnation.

The opening minutes saw scrappy play mainly in the Tai Po half as the Dragons worked hard to keep HKCC at bay. A defensive scrum was excellently stolen by HKCC to put the ladies in white on the front foot. HKCC made their way into the Tai Po 22 through some good work by the forwards and then two passes down the line unleashed Tissia Polycarpe for her first of the day in the corner, 5-0.

5 minutes later Tissia added her second in almost identical fashion after some good forward play scoring in the opposite corner, with Harriet Jamieson adding the extras to make the score 12-0.

The HKCC forwards continued to dominate play and turned a Tai Po scrum. From the resulting put-in, simple hands down the line to the wing saw the flying Russian Yana Dimitrova score in the corner as HKCC’s lead increased to 17-0.

HKCC continued to put pressure on the Dragons as Tai Po were boxed in their 22 for the majority of the first half. Another scrum 5 metres out and saw the forwards use their dominance to drive towards the line. No.8 Lynda Nazer showed some great footwork before picking up to push over the line to make the score 22-0.

Approaching half time, Tai Po had a spell of pressure pushing HKCC back into their own half. The Cricket Club defence contained the Tai Po attack and earned a scrum. Some great interchanging passes between Ashley Brooks and Tissia Polycarpe brought the play back into the Tai Po half with Tissia sprinting home to complete a first-half hat-trick. Jamieson made the conversion for a half-time score of 29-0.

The second half started with HKCC not taking their foot off the peddle as Ashley Brooks took a quick penalty on the half way line and jinked in and around the defence to score under the posts with Harriet again converting and taking the lead to 36-0.

Tai Po refused to give in and continued to press the HKCC defence, Centre Tissia however stole the ball in the HKCC 22 and danced through the Tai Po defence to score her 4th try with an emphatic run from her own half, 41-0.

In the closing 10 minutes HKCC continued to bombard the Tai Po try-line and a final score arrived as Lynda Nazer scored her second when she again picked up from the base of the scrum and powered over the line. Harriet added the conversion to put HKCC 48-0.

In the closing minutes the proud Tai Po Dragons team continued to play with great heart and passion and their effort was rewarded on the last play of the game. The ball was shifted wide to the wing who, still with a lot of work to do, used her speed to sprint passed the HKCC defenders and score under the posts and with the conversion added, the final score read 48-7.

HKCC play HK Scottish in the WNL1 B Final, 4:30pm, 12 March at KGV.

Player of the Match: Tissia Polycarpe

HKCC:
Carolyn Champion, Wawa Li, Nobuko Oda, Lauren Petersen, Lainie Man, Isabella Rivers, Cheryl Gourley, Lynda Nazer, Emma Chung, Harriet Jameison, Diani Li, Tinley Wong, Tissia Polycarpe, Yana Dimitrova, Angie Ng, Ashley Brooks, Katie Rowbottom, Mhairi McLaughlin, Stephanie Zhang, Kassie Chapel,Serene Yee, Julia Mason, Jo Harvey

Undefeated Valley Black Thrash HKFC Ice, While Gai Wu Beat USRC Tigers

Undefeated league champions Valley Black Ladies proved too strong for HKFC Ice, easily advancing to the Grand Championship final. HKFC Ice bowed out after a strong debut in the Premiership. Coach David Wigley commented on their season saying: “Valley are a level above everyone, but we’re really pleased with our first season in the Premiership.

“We had quite a few injuries early on, but we’ve come on and got stronger. This is a tight-knit group that play for each other. We came in fourth this season and we would have been happy to finish 5th or 6th at the beginning of the year, but now we feel like we can contend against the likes of Tigers and Gai Wu. We’re still at a learning and building stage, but we’re very happy with our performance.”

In the other semi-final, Gai Wu Falcons came up with an emphatic 24-5 win over USRC Tigers to set up a rematch of last year’s Grand Championship final with Valley. Speedster Aggie Poon Pak Yan collected a brace for the Falcons, with Hong Kong fifteens captain and No.8 Chow Mei Nam, and up and coming sevens star Chong Ka Yan, adding tries in the statement win over Tigers. Falcons coach Lai Yiu Pang was proud of the performance saying:

“We went out and executed our game plan, particularly with our defence and our play at the breakdown. It was a really tough game and the team deserves a lot of credit. It was a big win for us and will give us a some momentum. It was also good to get a bit of revenge after Tigers edged us out of second place in the league.”

It will be a rematch of last year’s Grand Championship when Valley beat Falcons 20-10. “It is going to be tough against Valley, said Pang, “They have a lot more size then we do so we’re going to need to be clinical in our defence and tackling. But we have built some strong momentum today. The win over Tigers was really good for our confidence and we deserve our place in the final,” Pang added.

photo: Valley RFC
source: HKRU