Tag: rugby

Women’s Rugby Results – 16 January, 2016

City - 16 January, 2016

Premiership

Tai Po Dragons 0-10 HKFC Ice
@ KG V, Kick-off: 18:00

Valley Black 87-0 SCAA CWB Phoenix
@ Shek Kip Mei, Kick-off: 15:00

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

Women's Premiership - 16 January, 2016

Valley Red v SCAA CWB - 16 January, 2016

National 15s

Gai Wu Fawkes 0-7 SCAA CWB Pheasants
@ King’s Park, Kick-off 19:30

Valley Red 15-12 USRC Tigers
@ King’s Park, Kick-off 19:30

City 10-7 Revolution SRC
@ Shek Kip Mei, Kick-off 18:00

Women's National 15s-A - 16 January, 2016

HK Scottish Kukris 40-5 Tai Po Dragons
@ KG V, Kick-off 16:30

HKFC Fire 0-65 HKCC
@ HK Football Club, Kick-off 13:30

Women's National 15s-B - 16 January, 2016

HKFC Ice - 16 January, 2016

National 10s

SCAA CWB Pink v University Unicorns
@ Tai Hung Tang Recreation Ground, Kick-off: 16:30

City 20-10 Revolution SRC
@ Tai Hung Tang Recreation Ground, Kick-off: 17:15

DB Pirates pstpd HK Scottish Kukris
@ Kings Park, Kick-off: 16:30

Women's National 10s - 16 January, 2016

Women’s Rugby Fixtures – 16 January, 2016

womens-rugby-16-january,-2016v2

womens-rugby-16-january-2016

Screen shots of the HK Rugby Union website with the women’s fixtures yet to be added – all the men’s fixtures for the rest of the season are posted in full.

Women's 15s - Screen Shot 2016-01-15 at 08.59.38

Women's 10s Screen Shot 2016-01-15 at 08.59.15

Match Report: HK Scottish Kukris v SCAA CWB Pheasants

hk-scottish2

Hong Kong Scottish Kukris started 2016 at 5th place in the league, with a game against 2nd place SCAA CWB Pheasants. There was everything to play for, as a win or draw would keep Kukris in the top half of the league when it splits. But both Tigers (6th) and Gai Wu (7th) could overtake Kukris…and had easier fixtures.

Training had not gone as planned, being disrupted by the weather, and with more injured players in support than players on the bench, the management team was apprehensive. Not so the ladies on the pitch.

The game commenced in a physical manner as both teams sought to open the scoring. But it was also error strewn, with numerous penalties. Nine minutes in SCAA were given a Yellow for repeated offside. Kukris used the advantage with LI Sze-ting scoring on the right by literally diving over the defense. The conversion was wide, 5/0. But SCAA struck back four minutes later with a try, 5/5. The game continued with neither team having a clear advantage, until thirty minutes when a good team effort enabled FUNG Yuen-ting to score. Halftime advantage to HKS Kukris 10/5.

SCAA clearly got the better team talk, as they came out fired-up and forced their way into the Kukris half, scoring a converted try. SCAA now had the lead, 10/12. In spite of the players tiring, Kukris responded well, and HIU Man-ling was able to outrun the defenders, score under the posts, with Karis CHENG converting. Advantage HKS Kukris 17/12. Another try would surely make the game safe, but it was SCAA who broke the Scottish defense, scoring under the posts and converting; score 17/19. As the clock ran down, Kukris surged forward, but the SCAA line remained solid. Even though Kukris has taken the lead three times, it was SCAA who were ahead at the final whistle, winning 19/17. But well played everyone. An exciting and entertaining game.

Best Hong Kong Scottish Kukris Player of the Day – LI Sze-ting.

HK Scottish Kukris - 9 January 2016

Hong Kong Scottish Kukris
1. Rachael Wong, 2. Neon Chau, 3. Scarlet Ma Sze-Wun, 4. Claire Hunter, 5. Robyn Beese, 6. Anna Kam, 7. Huen Wai-Ying, 8. Karis Cheng, 9. Andie Ma, 10. Chung Hau-Yi, 11. Fung Yuen-Ting, 12. Li Sze-Ting, Hui Man-Ling, 14. Roshini Turner, 15. Berky Kong, 16. Mary Tsui Yung-Nga, 17. Jim Tung-Hoi, 18. Taro Yau Sin-Yu

Women’s Rugby Results – 9 January, 2016

hk scottish v CWB

Premiership
Gai Wu Falcons 34-0 Tai Po Dragons
@ Happy Valley, Kick-off: 16:30

USRC Tigers 22-3 HKFC Ice
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:00

National 15s
HKFC Fire 0-53 City
@ HK Football Club, Kick-off: 15:00

HK Scottish 17-19 CWB Pheasants
@ Shek Kip Mei, Kick-off: 15:00

USRC Tigers 22-0 Police Sirens
@ KG V, Kick-off: 16:30

Gai Wu Fawkes 51-5 Tai Po Dragons
@ Happy Valley, Kick-off: 18:00

Revolution SRC 21-14 Valley Red
@ KGV, Kick-off: 18:00

Women’s Rugby Fixtures – 9 January, 2016

womens-rugby-9-january,-2016

Censorship, Intimidation and Harassment of SCMP Reader

scmp-powering-through---2-january-2016

It’s ironic that while on it’s front pages the SCMP vociferously advocates for press freedom and the release of Bo Lee and his fellow disappeared. The reality within it’s own pages is that of censorship, intimidation and harassment of any reader who dare criticise or question an SCMP employee. The exact type of actions that the SCMP would have its readers believe it looks to expose in others. The hypocrisy is sad.

On the 1 January the SCMP’s Kevin Kung spent 16 hours, working until 1am, on a story about the New Year’s Day Youth Rugby Tournament at HK Football Club. By his own admission he didn’t stay until the end of the tournament. A sterling effort you might think, except that the published article, a massive 250 or so words, quite simply ignores half the participants. Focusing solely on the boys rugby, reading his original story you’d never know that half the rugby played that day was by girls.

Linda Olson the administrator and driving force behind the Women’s Rugby Hong Kong Facebook group enquired politely of Mr Kung about the gender bias in his article.

“I am wondering why you only reported on boys’ rugby in the article below?
The headline makes it sound as if only boys took part.
The article itself makes no mention of the girls who played.
The video includes only brief coverage of girls rugby (the U12s team and captain).
This is unacceptable.
Nearly a quarter of rugby players in Hong Kong are girls/women and it is the most rapidly expanding demographic here.
Please ensure that your coverage is more inclusive in future..”

The article’s author Mr Kung replied and made some edits to ‘improve’ the online version of the article:
1. “Girls” was added to the sub-headline making it gender neutral.
2. A photo with caption of Gracie Hood (GH) was added.
3. An extra paragraph added to the end of the article mentioned the U19s girls’ game (but did not name the Captain as they had with the boys game) and GH being named Best and Fairest of the match.
Mrs Olson notified the WRHK Facebook group members of the changes and thanked Mr Kung for making them, at the same time providing a quantitative analysis of the gender imbalance of the SCMP coverage.

Mr Kung however had also cc’d in SCMP Sports Editor Noel Prentice who then fired off an intimidatory and threatening email to Mrs Olson which he cc’d to senior figures at the HK Rugby Union AND Mrs Olson’s employer!!!

Mr Prentice’s email is quite astounding in it’s arrogance, tone and less than full disclosure of facts.

“I take exception to you accusing my reporter and SCMP of sexist coverage when Kevin has gone out of his way to cover rugby and the New Year’s Day tournament. He spent 16 hours compiling the online and print coverage so please have some respect.

SCMP is a great supporter of rugby and we give what many consider a niche sport a disproportionate amount of coverage. (bc’s note: why, because the HK Rugby Union pay the SCMP a lot of money to write about local and international rugby). And we have also gone out of our way to cover the emergence of women/girls in the game and the opportunity they have been afforded.

We do not have the resources to give blanket coverage to any sport and all sports and events are judged on their news value.

We also strive to be fair and balanced and I would expect you to also adhere to these principles when delivering any gender bias lectures to the students of Li Po Chun United World College of Hong Kong.” SCMP’s Noel Prentice

If it takes Mr Kung 16 hours to write a 250 or so word article it does explain a lot about why the SCMP print edition is so thin and lacking in content compared to years past. Joking aside Noel Prentice’s email is factually mis-representative of Mrs Olson’s enquiry and comment; neglects to mention that the HKRU pays the SCMP lots of money to ‘support’ the writing and publishing of stories about rugby; and extremely patronising of the fairer sex “the emergence of women/girls in the game and the opportunity they have been afforded” and by assuming that boys rugby coverage is of value, while coverage of girls youth rugby has no news value.

If the original article was to quote Mr Prentice “Fair and balanced” then Mrs Olson wouldn’t have needed to contact Mr Kung and could have used the story to show how the media was covering girls and women’s rugby in the same detail as men’s rugby. That it didn’t make any mention of 50% of the tournaments participants makes it unbalanced not fully accurate and a perfect example of gender imbalance in the media – the subject of Mrs Olson’s frustration and her class.

Why Mr Prentice also cc’d Mrs Olson employer, in what appears to be a blatant intimidation attempt to damage her professional standing and work relationship with her employer – while at the same time looking to censor the use of SCMP content in an education setting – is something the SCMP failed to answer when bc emailed them asking for a comment.

Read the full email conversation here – email addresses have been removed to protect people’s privacy.
Read about women’s rugby in bc magazine and here on the Women’s Rugby Hong Kong facebook group.

Spain 57-0 Hong Kong @ Madrid – 19 December, 2015

Hong Kong Women's Xv in Spain

The Spanish national women’s rugby team beat Hong Kong 57-0 yesterday in Madrid to sweep the first ever series between the two teams. Spain beat Hong Kong 59-12 in the opening match on 15 December.

Despite a score line that was less flattering than the opening encounter, Hong Kong’s performance was much improved in yesterday’s official test match. Unfortunately for the visitors, the Spanish XV also clearly understood the importance of the tie, and upped their intensity to a level unseen in the opening encounter – blitzing Hong Kong with nine unanswered tries on the day.

Spain entertained their home support with an impressive 80 minutes of frenzied physicality in a game that was played at admirable pace by both sides. While Hong Kong’s offense was effectively stymied, defensively it was a much-improved result with all of the team committed to the effort.

In the end, Spain simply proved too big, too fast and too skillful – underscoring the experience gap between the two sides with Spain having played in multiple Women’s Rugby World Cups and over 120 test matches.

Spain brought all of their size, physicality and speed across the line into play on a surprisingly sunny and firm ground for Madrid in December.

The unrelenting onslaught made Hong Kong’s determined defensive display that much more impressive on the day, as did the fact that prime offensive threat Aggie Poon Pak Yan was out due to injury. Poon’s replacement at fullback, Adrienne Garvey, had a solid outing, putting in some memorable tackles to halt the frequent Spanish attacks.

Captain Chow Mei Nam once again led from the front in a superb effort that was cut short in the first half due to injury but it was simply next woman up for Hong Kong throughout the encounter. The team effort was encouraging with some of the team’s most recognisable stars having quiet afternoons.

Spain demonstrated their intent to put Hong Kong to the sword from the opening kick-off when they opted for a scrum on Hong Kong’s 22-metre line despite having a perfectly kickable penalty opportunity. Hong Kong’s scrum and defence held on that occasion – as it did throughout much of the first half – but it was the first of what would ultimately be too many attacking forays for the hosts on the afternoon. Somehow Hong Kong withstood Spain’s frenzied attack for the first 30 minutes, allowing only 12 points to the visitors in an excellent defensive performance.

Despite not having the chance to show much offensively, Hong Kong had sustained periods of possession – demonstrating a vastly improved structure from day one. Most impressive was the fact that these patches of possession invariably came as Hong Kong tried to work the ball from deep in its own half, showing excellent composure while doing so.

Ultimately the size and physical intensity of the Spanish defence proved too strong and the constant pressure lead to some loose passing on occasion that turned over Hong Kong’s possession. With the pace and frequency of Spain’s attack it was always a question of how long Hong Kong could hold and ultimately the levee broke, as Spain crossed over for two more tries in quick succession shortly before halftime, giving the hosts a 24-0 lead at the break.

Spain crossed over for five tries in the second half with flanker Paula Medin collecting a brace and scrumhalf Patricia Garcia adding six conversions and a fine solo try to help Spain reach its total of 57-0.

Considering Spain’s pedigree the team’s improvement was more obvious than the score line indicated. “We improved both individually and collectively from the first game to yesterday, in particular our defence in the tighter channels as well as our overall game structure,” said Hull.

The original idea behind the test series was to gauge Hong Kong’s strength outside of the region and that objective was achieved. While there still remains much to improve on that front, Hong Kong’s performance yesterday bodes well for next season’s Asia Rugby Championship matches against Kazakhstan and Japan.

In fact, Spain were an ideal opponent for Hong Kong, matching the solid tactical skills, pace and ball handling of Japan with the direct physical engagement of Kazakhstan. One senses that the true results of the Spain series are likely only to be seen in next season’s Asia Rugby Women’s Championship in April.

Coach Hull agrees: “Spain has been a huge learning and development opportunity for the team and we will use this as a starting point for the 2016 Asian championships and build from there.

“I’m proud of the players. They showed great character and a real understanding of what is required to play at this level. Whilst we did show some improvement match to match, this week has been useful to highlight what is needed in the longer-term for us to play at this level,” added Hull.

With Hong Kong having marked its first ever test against non-Asian opposition, the squad will no doubt be hungry for the chance to put the lessons learned from Madrid into action in Asia and once again on the world stage.

Hong Kong v Spain
1. Lau Nga Wun, 2. Royce Chan Leong Sze 3. Lee Ka Shun, 4. Cheung Shun Han, 5. Chow Mei Nam (Captain), 6. Melody Li, 7. Christy Cheng Ka Chi, 8. Amelie Seure, 9. Sham Wai Sum, 10. Rebecca Thompson, 11. Cheng Tsz Ting, 12. Colleen Tjosvold, 13. Natasha Olson-Thorne, 14. Lau Sze Wa, 15. Adrienne Garvey,
Substitutes: 16. Winnie Siu, 17. Karen So, 18. Ku Hoi Ying, 19. Claire Forster, 20. Cheng Ching To, 21. Lo Wai Yan, 22. Stephanie Cuvelier, 23. Mak Ho Yee.

Raul Garcia’s photos from the second test match
https://picasaweb.google.com/107614371220763372643/EspanaVsHongKongTestMatch02

Spain 59-12 Hong Kong – First Test, Match Report

Hong Kong Women's Squad

As it looks towards the future Hong Kong’s Women’s XVs lost 59-12 to Spain yesterday (15 December) in its first ever test match against a non-Asian opponent. Hong Kong will have a chance at redemption in the second test on Saturday, 19 December, in Madrid.

After the match, Hong Kong Coach Jo Hull said, “It was obviously a tough score line, but going into this series our focus is squarely on us as a team and our individual and collective performance goals. This is how we will measure our success and the goal is clear now in how we improve from the first match to Saturday, and how we adapt to a much faster and more physical game of rugby like we saw from Spain.

“This week is about building for the future, and to do that we need to expose ourselves at this level internationally,” Hull added.

The biggest questions for Hong Kong to answer ahead of Saturday were posed by the Spanish pack, which dealt most of the damage, particularly with ball in hand, as each forward carry saw Spain regularly collecting large chunks of territory. Spain’s support play was also superb, as they repeatedly sucked in the defence before releasing the ball to the backline with numerous gaps to exploit.

Hong Kong’s backs were unable to get much positive play generated until the second half, when they proved that with good ball they can equal the Spanish attack. With the set piece under significant pressure, Hong Kong’s backs were tasked with tackling for most of the match – any ball they did receive usually was attached to a sizable Spanish defender flooding into the backline.

The team’s commitment in defence was solid, although first-up tackling was an issue early in the match. Spain quickly gathered momentum early by using their forwards in space from the ruck and maul. They methodically moved the ball deep into Hong Kong’s territory scoring their first try in the 6th minute.

More tries followed, most of them scored by the Spanish pack, and Hong Kong was trailing 17-0 by the 15th minute. Spain added 14 more points in the second quarter to take a 31-0 lead at halftime.

Hong Kong responded well in the second half with Aggie Poon Pak Yan scoring early on. Poon collected the ball from a Spanish miscue on a well-placed high ball, taking cleanly before dashing 40 metres for the try. Adrienne Garvey’s conversion brought the score to 38-7. Poon later left the match injured and her availability for Saturday’s test could be in question.

Natasha Olson-Thorne, made an impact after coming on as a reserve in the second half. Her physical presence rallied the defence as she repeatedly made the solo tackles that had eluded Hong Kong for much of the match. The addition of reserve scrumhalf Chloe Mak Ho Yee was also instrumental in fueling Hong Kong’s improved performance after the break. Mak added pace to the attack and showed good tactical awareness in shifting the point of attack to unbalance the Spanish defence.

In the 70th minute, Olson-Thorne scored Hong Kong’s second try, a fine solo effort. With the forwards cleanly claiming the ball from an attacking line out, Olson-Thorne entered the line at pace before fending off her opposite number to create a gap in the defence and race away untouched for a long try. Garvey’s conversion was wide leaving Hong Kong on 12 points to Spain’s eventual 59.

Hull singled out the performances of Mak, on her international debut, and reserve prop Jasmine Cheung Shuk Han who also came on in the second half: “It was a great performance from Chloe. She will be one to watch for the future and Jasmine coming on in the second half really helped give us a physical edge as well,” said Hull.

Despite the result, there were many positives and Hull recognised the team’s continued effort on a tough outing, saying:“I’m hugely proud of the team. They showed great character, particularly in the second half when we had more possession and started to build some phases. For many of these players this is a new level of rugby; however we now need to learn, front up and get a much better start on Saturday.”

Hong Kong v Spain
1. Lau Nga Wun, 2. Karen So, 3. Lee Ka Shun, 4. Chow Mei Nam (Captain), 5. Claire Forster, 6. Melody Li, 7. Christy Cheng Ka Chi, 8. Amelie Seure, 9. Sham Wai Sum, 10. Rebecca Thompson, 11. Stephanie Cuvelier, 12. Colleen Tjosvold, 13. Adrienne Garvey, 14. Lau Sze Wa, 15. Poon Pak Yan,
Substitues: 16. Royce Chan Leong Sze, 17. Cheung Shuk Han, 18. Winnie Siu, 19. Cheng Ching To, 20. Lo Wai Yan, 21. Mak Ho Yee, 22. Natasha Olson-Thorne, 23. Cheng Tsz Ting.

Raul Garcia’s photos from the first test
https://picasaweb.google.com/107614371220763372643/AmistosoEspanaHongKongFemenino?feat=embedwebsite