Hong Kong’s sevens squad players returned to domestic action in the second round of the Women’s Premiership which saw Valley Black and Gai Wu Falcons register convincing wins over Kowloon and CWB Phoenix. The two top clubs in the local women’s game continued their impressive form of the opening Saturday with Valley’s 56-0 win over Kowloon equalling Gai Wu’s margin over the same opponents the previous weekend, while Gai Wu beat CWB Phoenix 31-0.
Gai Wu’s coach Lai commented after the game “Causeway Bay were really competitive in the first half, they put us under a lot of pressure in both defence and attack. Their attitude was positive and they got right on to us. I thought we took a long time to get on top of things but then we got a bit of confidence in the final quarter.” Lai added “We can take a lot of positives from the game but we made a lot of errors in basic skills too, which we’ll need to address for the next game.”
Despite the loss CWB Phoenix coach Ocean Chow was confident. “I was very pleased with our performance. This game built our team spirit and I think the players enjoyed the game.”
Causeway Bay got off to a torrid start putting the Falcons under significant pressure right up to the final quarter when the Falcons returning Hong Kong sevens players put some gloss on the scoreboard.
At half-time Phoenix trailed by only two tries, missing several chances to get on the board themselves.
“Gai Wu scored two tries in the first half while we had a very good chance that we did not take. In the second half, it was the same story as last week: not enough fitness, so our performance is not yet stable,” said Chow.
Chow was pleased with the efforts of his forwards “Our scrum was stronger than previously – we were probably 50:50 against Gai Wu [in this area] and our driving was also good, but it was not enough.”
In the days other Premiership game HKFC Ice got their campaign off to a solid start with a win over a battling City XV, 39-17.
Additional reporting and image: HKRU
