The penultimate week of Women’s Division 1 saw HKFC Ice maintain the momentum of their crushing defeat of HK Scottish the previous Thursday with a clear victory over HKCC Babes. The tale of the match, though, is incomplete without noting the staunch defensive performance and pack dominance of HKCC, including 8 minutes in the second half in which they were down to 13, and which should give other teams chasing the championship a small ray of hope as the post-season playoffs begin.
The match, kicking off at Football Club at 18:00, started with Ice displaying the same attacking strategy used throughout the season – kicking over the top and then probing with the backs to find an overlap. A fortunate bounce led to the first try after only a couple of minutes, but the Babes soon switched on and hunkered down to an effective blitz defence. After attempted chips down both sides of the park were frustrated by the Cricket Club backs, in particular Christy Ma on the right wing, Football Club opted to kick from a subsequent penalty (for not rolling away) to consolidate their lead after twenty five minutes. In the forwards, Cricket Club were dominating the scrappy scrums, with Winnie Cheung excelling at hooker and producing her best performance of the season securing turnover ball and sniping in the loose. Cricket Club soon trapped FC in their own 22, with the Ice forwards unable to hammer out a path, but the ever reliable boot of their fly-half released the pressure and returned the action to the Babes’ half. And the high intensity of defence took its toll on Cricket Club, with FC finally able to dive over from a close range penalty with the last play of the half, to put the score 17-0.
Coach Darren Cartlidge challenged Cricket Club to get on the scoreboard. And the Babes responded mightily, with huge breakaway runs first from full back Steph Zhang, and then prop Cheryl Gourley, each covering over half the field and, bizarrely, mapping almost identical routes. But, as ever, the Babes didn’t help themselves, with the first promising attack of the half ending in a yellow card, after a succession of warnings for not releasing the ball.
Two further yellow cards in quick succession (both of them, it should be noted, deserved but not incurred maliciously) reduced the team to 13 for a period of 8 minutes. FC took advantage of this superiority to first convert a resultant penalty, and then spin the ball out wide through the hands of all their backs for a classy and well worked try. Cricket Club continued to press and did not give up, Player of the Game Lynda Nazer distinguishing herself with a series of ferocious tackles. And when fly half Harriet Jamieson caught her own kick and Joanie Yip, in the second row, barrelled forward into the FC 22, it looked like CC might get the try they deserved. But it wasn’t to be, and in the final moments of the game FC touched over the line once more to cap another strong performance from their backs.
Next week, HKCC look to bring their regular season to a winning close against the Police Sirens, in the 18:00 kick off at Aberdeen Playground. The Babes will be looking to finally get both defence and offence firing in the same game, and if that happens, this is a team that has the potential to look very strong next year.
