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

valley black march 2016

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

Women’s Rugby Results – 5 March, 2016

TSW Pandas-5 march 2016

Grand Championship

Valley Black 74-0 HKFC Ice
@ Happy Valley, Kick-off: 15:00

USRC Tigers 5-24 Gai Wu Falcons
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:00

National 15s

CWB Pheasants 10-16 City
@ KGV, Kick-off: 18:00

Valley Red 13-12 Revolution SRC
@ So Kon Po, Kick-off: 18:00

HKCC 48-7 Tai Po Dragons
@ Aberdeen, Kick-off: 18:00

HK Scottish 17-7 Police
@ Shek Kip Mei, Kick-off: 18:00

National 10s

Tin Shui Wai 26-5 City
@ Tin Shui Wai, Kick-off: 14:00

Revolution SRC 12-10 CWB Pink
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 15:00

Women’s Rugby Fixtures – 5 March, 2016

Women’s Grand Championship Rugby Fixtures – 5 March, 2016

Women’s Rugby Results – 27 February, 2016

usrc tigers feb 2016

Grand Championship

Gai Wu Falcons 76-0 Kowloon
@ Happy Valley, Kick-off: 16:30

HKFC Ice 27-12 CWB Phoenix
@ HK Football Club, Kick-off: 18:00

USRC Tigers 62-0 Tai Po Dragons
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 19:30

hkcc feb 2016

 

National 15s

Gai Wu Fawkes v Revolution SRC
@ Happy Valley, Kick off: 18:00

USRC Tigers 7-19 City
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 16:30

Tai Po Dragons 3-0 Police
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:00

HKCC 38-10 HK Scottish
@ Aberdeen, Kick-off: 18:00

db pirates feb 2016

10s Grand Championship

Revolution SRC v DB Pirates
@ So Kon Po, Kick-off: 16:30

CWB Pink v University
@ So Kon Po, Kick-off: 17:15

City 54-10 HK Scottish
@ Shek Kip Mei, Kick-off: 18:00

hk scottish sekongers

Women’s Rugby Fixtures – 27 February, 2016

womens-rugby-27-February,-2016

5-try Olivia Coady Seals Valley Black’s Unbeaten Season and League Title

Valleys-Olivia-Coady-lit-up-Falcons

In the seven-team Women’s Premiership Valley Black Ladies stormed through the league undefeated for a second straight season, closing out their 2015/16 league campaign with an emphatic 49-12 win over their nearest rivals, Gai Wu Falcons.

Valley was paced by fullback and New Zealand Black Fern Olivia Coady, who scored five tries, four consecutively with two on either side of halftime, in the eight-try rout over Falcons, the last side in the Women’s Premiership to hand Valley a loss – in the 2013/14 season.

Sevens star Stephanie Cuvelier opened the scoring with an early try, but Falcons replied almost immediately through a try from their own sevens sensation, winger Aggie Poon Pak Yan leveling the scoring at 5-all early on.

12742605_10205523296069320_7419280736154128262_nAfter Poon’s tally it was one-way traffic for the league champions with Coady doing all of the driving, scoring two tries for Valley in the second quarter. Bella Milo added a penalty between the first two Coady tries, and a conversion on Coady’s second, to give Valley a 20-5 lead at the half.

Coady completed her natural hat-trick shortly after the re-start – securing the bonus point for Valley – before adding her fourth consecutive score to push Valley out to a 30-5 lead. Sam Scott added a fifth try for Valley, followed by Jen Mackay before Coady collected her fifth with five minutes remaining. Milo’s conversion brought the score to 49-5 before Falcons picked up a consolation try through Chong Ka Yan, the successful conversion bringing the final score to 49-12.

All the weekend’s results here

valley black league winners 2016

Source: HKRU

Women’s Rugby Results – 20 February, 2016

valley black league winners 2016

Premiership

Tai Po Dragons 0-15 Kowloon
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 16:30

Gai Wu 12-49 Valley Black
@ Kings Park, Kick-off: 18:00

USRC Tigers 37-10 CWB Phoenix
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 19:30

Women's Premiership - 20 February, 2016

National 15s

Valley Red 7-10 CWB Pheasants
@ KGV, Kick-off: 16:30

USRC Tigers v City
@ Tai Hang Tung, Kick-off: 16:30

Gai Wu 12-5 Revolution SRC
@ KGV, Kick-off: 18:00

Women's 15s - 20 February, 2016

Tai Po Dragons 14-12 HKFC Fire
@ Tai Hang Tung, Kick-off: 15:00

Police 15-12 HK Scottish
@ Police Boundary Street, Kick-off: 18:00

Women's 10s - 20 February, 2016

Valley v Gai Wu Highlights Regular Season Final Weekend

valley-womens-rugby-28-nov-2015

A women’s Premiership triple-header at King’s Park will feature an end-of-season clash between league champions Valley Black and their longstanding rivals, second-placed Gai Wu Falcons (18.00). Valley, currently on the longest unbeaten streak in Hong Kong rugby, will put their run of 25 matches without loss on the line on Saturday. A win over the Falcons will complete two full league seasons without a defeat and position Valley to defend their Grand Championship title from last year.

The competitiveness of the two sides is such that Valley’s last reverse came at the hands of Gai Wu in the 2013-14 Grand Championship, a match decided by a single try. In a hard-fought contest between the two sides earlier this season, Valley muscled their way to a 15-3 victory – its smallest margin of victory this year – with a defining second-half performance. On Saturday, they will look to again keep the action focused in the centre of the field.

Valley coach Chris Garvey commented “Gai Wu are extremely quick on the wing and have probably the best front row in the Premiership but we should have an edge in midfield. Our forwards continue to do an admirable job, while our back line has become extremely competitive, having previously struggled to get the ball over the line enough to make bonus points. Now we have girls on the bench who can come on and perform. There are no passengers in this side.”

Valley and Hong Kong veteran Colleen Tjosvold echoed Garvey: “We’ll be looking to exploit our contact area skills and stop their wide attack. We play a good territory game and can inch our way up the field if necessary. It will be a good game, but more about attrition than blinding long runs. They go for discipline and running down the flanks. We look to our contact strength to keep up unrelenting pressure.”

“The success we’ve had gives you confidence but also a lot of pressure,” adds Tjosvold. “You’re expected to keep it up. The pressure is always on – every team wants to beat us. You can’t win every game. I’m always confident, but you never know what’s going to happen.”

gai wu

Gai Wu coach Lai Yiu Pang is keen to topple the league winners, with an eye on staking an early claim on the Grand Championship, as the two sides are the leading contenders to advance to the season’s finale match. He expects his side to maintain possession and build phases in attack, capitalising on their superior fitness. “Conditioning is our strength, and we need to make it count,” he says.

He can draw on almost a full squad against Valley, as a number of players have returned from injury ahead of the play-offs, but the team will miss Tang Wai Kwan, a “key asset” according to Lai, who is grounded after receiving a red card last time out.

Vice-captain Melody Li chimes with her coach:“Valley are physically stronger, so we need to put up a solid defence which has been our training focus. We have to apply pressure to contain them and we have been working harder on our defence patterns.”

With both teams boasting numerous Hong Kong internationals there is much respect shared between the sides. “Gai Wu are a great club, with a lot of talented individuals,” says Garvey. “They’ve had a bit of a rough season with injuries, but some of their girls have been together for 8, 9, 10 years. They are a tight unit.” Lai admires the strength of Valley’s scrum, “which allows them more time and space to build their attack, and their captain Bella Milo, a former captain of Samoa, is a big weapon.”

There is little doubt that the two teams represent the cream of Hong Kong’s Women’s Rugby. Gai Wu boast around ten Hong Kong internationals, while Valley could field an entire side of national representatives, with 16 Hong Kong internationals across both fifteens and sevens, along with the totemic Milo and fullback Olivia Coady, who has represented New Zealand.

While the favourites for the Grand Championship final are Valley and Falcons, both coaches cautioned that they are not counting third-ranked USRC Tigers out of the hunt. The Tigers are coming into form, including a recent win over Gai Wu – just its second loss on the season – a key result that deprived the Falcons of the opportunity to capture the league title and the automatic bye to the Grand Championship semi final that accompanies it.

By virtue of their successful league defence Valley will advance directly to the Grand Championship semi-finals, while the six remaining teams will contest knockout matches for the remaining three slots. The semi-finals and final are “a whole new game,” says Tjosvold. “Even with everything we’ve done, it’s a new scrap. We’re excited.”

As the on-pitch action moves toward its climax, both coaches reflected on the growth and success of the women’s game this season. In particular, both welcomed the introduction of the Super Series, which saw the best players from across the Premiership redistributed to create three teams for a round robin series. Garvey, who is also the Assistant National Women’s XVs coach, says “The Super Series has been wonderful. As a result of availability problems for some of the lower sides, the Premiership has almost turned into two levels. The lower levels have some excellent players but they lack the chance to play enough competitive games. So the Super Series has been excellent and should be repeated.”

Lai, who is also HKRU National Performance Coach (Development), agrees that the Super Series is boosting development and notes that the Premiership is getting stronger, “HKFC and Tai Po Dragons were close at the beginning of the season before injuries cost them and National League One also has more clubs now, indicating that the women’s rugby population is growing. More resources for coaching and training will definitely help close the gaps between clubs.”

Garvey agrees saying, “Kowloon and Tai Po are very young clubs, and if they can get two or three seasons under their belt, they will develop. It’s not a short-term project but with the individuals they’ve got, and maybe some recruitment from overseas, we can have a really competitive Premiership.”

Find the full list of women’s fixtures for the 20 February, 2016 here

Source: HKRU