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HK Women’s Rugby 7s, Day 1 at King’s Park

Hong Kong’s lack of a competitive match since November showed as the hosts stumbled on an action-packed first day of the HK Women’s Rugby Sevens losing against an ecstatic Argentinean side. Hong Kong must now beat Japan to move above Argentina and make it through to the Cup semi-finals.

France looked a class apart as their development team (the national side is playing on the Women’s World Series in Atlanta this weekend) notched three wins from three starts in pool A to lock in a semi-final berth, while Kazakhstan and South Africa will fight it out for the other spot. Japan, Hong Kong and Argentina can all still make the Cup semi-finals in pool B.

The home team got their tournament underway with a thumping 45-0 win over Sri Lanka, with Aggie Poon Pak-yan running in three tries and Natasha Olson-Thorne crossing in her first game as captain. Sri Lanka had no answers for a rampaging Hong Kong, who completely dominated with slick passing and fierce tackling.

Lee Tsz-ting, who was a ball girl at HK Women’s 7s 6 years ago, scored on debut when she came on in the second half against Sri Lanka.

Hong Kong’s second match was a low-scoring affair, as the hosts self-inflicted error strewn performance allowed a hard working Argentina side to dominate territory and run large chunks of time off the clock. Argentina received two yellow cards, and embarrassingly for Hong Kong scored the decisive try in their 12-5 win with only six players on the pitch.

“Unfortunately in that game we just lacked a bit of patience,” hiding her disappointment Hong Kong coach Anna Richards said. “We just let mistakes creep into our game under pressure and that does happen. We let Argentina rattle us a bit at the breakdown and there was a bit of a free fall there, but we just didn’t take our opportunities.”

Hong Kong’s last match against Thailand was a must win and it was all one-way traffic, with the local team streaking away to a 24-0 win that saw Richards comment “We tried to force the issue a little bit against Argentina and we made some good opportunities and we killed it,” Richards said.”This time we were very patient, which I thought was great.”

Debutant Lee Tsz-ting and Colleen Tjosvold were shining lights for Hong Kong – while Christine Gordon and Chong Ka-yan were amongst the try scorers.

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France took a while to get going in their opening match before eventually overcoming Kenya 22-5, before flexing their legs and overpowering China in a 39-7 thumping. They finished the day with a narrow 12-10 win over Kazakhstan, with Montserrat Amédée and Noémie Sanch amongst the tries with three each for the day.

With his side semi-final bound, coach Paul Albaladéjo praised the evenness of effort from his charges, but refused to look past their final pool match. “I’m very happy after day one,” Albaladéjo said. “Very happy for my team, everyone was very good and it was a good job. We are now focusing on game number four tomorrow against South Africa. After that, I don’t yet know the way.”

Japan looked composed and confident as comfortably won three match: belting Sri Lanka 41-0, knocking off Thailand 22-7 and finishing the day with a 50-0 drubbing of Argentina. Hong Kong will face Japan in the last pool match tomorrow at 10.00am. Japan shared the scoring load across a wide range of players, with Yukari Tateyama and Ayumi Yabuuchi just two of the players to get in on the act.

Argentina were impressive prior to their match against Japan, shrugging off Thailand (19-12), Hong Kong and Sri Lanka (30-5).Gonzalez Sofia was one of her side’s best, crossing four times throughout the day and constantly creating opportunities for her teammates.

Nadine Roos impressed in a South Africa side that won two and lost one, scoring four tries for the day. For Kazakhstan, Lyudmila Korotkikh also got amongst the points, registering four tries as her side won two of their four matches. There were mixed results for China, with a first up 10-5 win over Kazakhstan followed by losses to France (39-7) and South Africa (7-0). It was a tough day at the King’s Park for Kenya, Thailand and Sri Lanka, with each side going winless.

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