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Hong Kong’s Bowlers Shine in Win Over Kenya

Hong Kong squared their two match tour of Kenya with a 39-run victory in the second ICC World Cricket League Championship match in Nairobi. A blistering 78 off 68 balls from captain Babar Hayat paved the way for the visitors in a rain-reduced limited-overs match.

After a delayed start – Hong Kong were 25.1 overs into their 31-over innings when the rain cut them short on 148-4. Chris Carter supported Hayat with 41 in a 119-run stand for the second wicket.

The Duckworth-Lewis-Stern Method adjusted Kenya’s target to 173 to win off 25 overs and they appeared well on track after a flying start from openers Alex Obanda (39) and Irfan Karim (33) who raced to 70-0 after 10 overs, but the introduction of spin turned the game for Hong Kong.

Nadeem Ahmed (3-23) struck first with the score on 79 and three further scalps to Ehsan Khan (3-12) saw Kenya wobble to 89-5. There was a brief fightback, but Tanveer Ahmed’s accuracy with his yorkers at the death netted him three wickets as Hong Kong dismissed Kenya for 133.

Coach Simon Cook was a relieved man, but was still hurting from Friday’s loss.

“We’ve not got the result we wanted from the tour but pleasing to get the win today and still keep ourselves in the mix for the ICC World Cricket League Championship,” Cook said. “Kenya got off to a very good start in their innings so it was pleasing to see the energy of the guys remain high and to come back and win was a good effort. We need to be more consistent going forward if we want to challenge the top of the table in this competition.”

Captain Babar Hayat, whose contribution with the bat was vital once again, was still searching for improvement in his own game. “I’m pleased that as captain I led from the front today and that’s what I need to do,” Babar said. “I don’t think I am playing my best yet, there is still more improvement to come from me – I’d have liked to have made a hundred today and I want to set the bar higher for myself. I’m really pleased that we won this game and proud we could get this win for Hong Kong.”

Additional reporting and image: HK Cricket

Russia Thump Hong Kong to Win Cup of Nations

Russia’s 27-0 victory over hosts Hong Kong secured their second straight Cup of Nations title after the defending champions won all three matches beating Zimbabwe (19-15) and Papua New Guinea (49-19) earlier in the week. The score line flattered the champions to a degree with the game evenly contested apart from the first and last ten minutes of the game.

Early nerves saw Hong Kong concede a 12-0 advantage in the opening quarter as Russia kept the ball in the forwards, capitalising on their size their opening drives were rewarded with two tries inside the opening ten minutes.

No.8 Pavel Butenko barrelled over the line from in close to score Russia’s first try in the seventh minute. Fly half Yurii Kushnarev was off with his conversion, but would get a second chance three minutes later after flanker Tagir Gadzhiev charged down a poor Hong Kong clearance kick on the try line before diving on the loose ball for his side’s second try in the tenth minute.

Kushnarev’s conversion extended the margin to 12-0 and Hong Kong were never able to close the gap. Kushnarev added a penalty late in the half as the game tightened up to give Russia a 15-0 margin at the break.

“I didn’t think Russia were 27 points better than us,” said Hong Kong coach Leigh Jones after the match, “but if you give them a 12 or 15 point start that is normally how it ends up. Ultimately, against quality teams like Russia if you make silly errors or bad decisions, you get punished, and that is what happened in the first 15 or 20 minutes.”

Left with much work to do after the opening quarter, Hong Kong settled into its patterns and started to show what it was capable of, but despite creating several scoring opportunities Hong Kong couldn’t capitalise as the hosts struggled in the accuracy stakes.

Hong Kong upped the pressure in the second half but the Russians boxed clever with Kushnarev and fullback Ramil Gaysin demonstrating some strong tactical kicking skills to keep Hong Kong moving backwards.

With Hong Kong trailing late in the game, Jones emptied his reserves bench and the hosts lost some of their shape, conceding two tries in the final ten minutes.

Winger Denis Simplikevich collected both tries against the run of play with his first coming in the 70th minute and his second on the stroke of full-time. Kushnarev slotted the second conversion to extend the visitors margin to 27-0 as the hooter sounded for full-time.

“While it is a 27-0 thumping at home, I’m not too despondent, because I am seeing signs that we are going in the right direction,” said Jones. “At times we had the Russians out on their feet, but we couldn’t ram that advantage home and turn that pressure into points.”

“We are developing a style of play that I think suits Hong Kong and we just need to keep working hard to be able to stick with that style for longer periods and under pressure,” Jones added.

A delighted Russia captain Vasily Artemyev gave full credit to Hong Kong saying: “The final was challenging as expected and I’m pleased at the result. Hong Kong is making progress. We got a few good scoring opportunities early on by keeping it tight, but in open play they are as strong as anyone we face.”

“They are hard to defend and hard to break down because they have a lot of speed and play very wide. But we stuck to our game plan and were more clinical than in our first two games,” added Artemyev.

The tournament will aid Russia’s build-up for the European championships early next year.

“Hong Kong play an interesting type of rugby and something we would expect from teams like Belgium, Spain and Germany in the European Cup so this competition is really helpful for us,” Artemyev added.

Tonight’s bonus point win sees Russia finish at the top of the table on 14 points, followed by Hong Kong (10), Zimbabwe (7) and Papua New Guinea (0).

Zimbabwe outran and outmuscled Papua New Guinea this afternoon, extending a 13-8 half-time lead to a final 38-11 victory.

The Papuans took an early lead after a penalty from fullback and captain Tisa Kautu, but Zimbabwe reclaimed the lead after No.8 Njabulo Ndhlovu’s try in the 7th minute. Winger James Lumaris pulled Papua New Guinea level in the 19th minute, but Zimbabwe built steam from then on, with a try from winger Tafadzwa Chotokwindo and a penalty from fullback Lenience Tambwera, giving them a 13-8 lead at the break.

The second half was one-way traffic as Zimbabwe found gaps in the Papua New Guinea interior defence to run in a further three tries while Tambwera added two more penalties. Winger Stephen Hunduza flashed some great individual skills to claim an 80-metre try in the 55th minute, breaking the Papuan resistance for good and bringing the score to 24-8 after two previous penalties from Tambwera.

Centre Riaan O’Neill and flanker Andrew Rose widened the floodgates with loping tries through the middle of the Papuan defence while conversions from Tambwera and fly half Tichifara Makwanya rounded out the scoring at 38-11.

Zimbabwe coach Cyprian Mandenge was pleased to cap off a fruitful week with a win, saying, “We are improving with every game. We got a result today, but there are a lot of areas we want to polish. We are losing too much possession and some of our decision-making was poor.

“But it’s good to finish with a win. We didn’t win last year, so I’m happy. There is some progress, but our big problem is that we lack game time. This is only our fourth game of 2016 and that’s not good enough. We want to play more games, which is why tournaments like this are so important,” Mandenge added.

“The teams in Africa are gaining ground on us. Kenya is playing a lot of games and they beat us this year in the African Cup. We aren’t the bullyboys anymore so we need more games so we can start challenging again. This is a higher standard than the Africa Cup, but we believe we can beat the teams here, especially if we can get more game time,” Mandenge added.

Papua New Guinea coach Sydney Wesley shared Mandenge’s assessment of the competition: “We can take a lot from this tournament. The standard of the other teams will go a long way towards developing our rugby. It is a lot tougher than our competition back home, the biennial FORU tournament.”

“This week has helped us identify some areas to work on. We need to improve our set piece and our scrums and lineouts. We will work hard on these areas leading up to the FORU Cup next year. Hopefully we will perform well there and get an invite back to this tournament. I am sure that with more game time we would come back a lot better and stronger,” Wesley added.

Additional reporting and image: HKRU

Kenya Beat Hong Kong in First ODI

Hong Kong missed a golden opportunity to push their claims for top spot in the ICC World Cricket League Championship losing by three wickets to Kenya in Nairobi in the first of two ODI’s.

The key point in the match came when Hong Kong on 214-5 with nine overs remaining were looking to post a really challenging target instead suffered a dramatic batting collapse to be all out for 222. Kenya’s captain Rakeb Patel did the damage during that period taking 5-16 off 6 overs.

Kenya too almost lost their cool, collapsing from 140-1 to 171-6 before a rain delay saw them collect their thoughts and pass the reduced target of 200 with 13 balls and three wickets to spare.

For Hong Kong, Anshuman Rath starred with the bat, scoring 90 off 92 balls, which included a century partnership with fellow 19-year-old Shahid Wasif (44 off 61). This partnership helped the innings recover from the cheap losses of Babar Hayat (24) and Nizakat Khan (4), while Kinchit Shah played a cameo at the top of the order, scoring 34 off 17 balls.

With the ball, wickets were shared, with Ehsan Khan 2-44 returning the best figures.

Coach Simon Cook was left fuming with his side’s inability to finish the match from a strong position.

“It’s frustrating because you get to a point in a game where we could have accelerated and taken the game away from Kenya but unfortunately we’ve been guilty of losing critical moments in games and we lost that critical moment today,” Cook said.

“We didn’t capitalise on the good work done by Anshuman and Shahid, which is very disappointing. We have a lower order that can be explosive, which we saw in the 1st ODI against PNG, but it’s just getting them to do it more consistently.”

“We had opportunities to win this in the field as well – we dropped a couple of chances and took a wicket off a no ball,” Cook added. “It’s hard to make changes when it’s your lower that didn’t get the runs and that’s not their job. So you can’t drop a bowler because they’ve not got runs. So we will need to reflect on the performance and look at options who we can bring in.”

Cook continued “This was a perfect opportunity to come here and get to the top of the World Cricket League Championship and take the pressure off ourselves but this loss puts us right in the thick of the pack. Sunday is now a must win game – we need to treat it as such. The positive from today is that we didn’t play well and nearly pulled off a win.”

Sunday’s match will be the second and final match of the tour before Hong Kong return home on Monday.

Additional reporting and image: HK Cricket

Russia and Hong Kong Win

On match day two in the Cup of Nations Russia pounded Papua New Guinea, 49-19, and Hong Kong beat Zimbabwe 34-11. The victors setting up a rematch of last year’s winner-take-all clash on the 19 November, at Hong Kong Football Club.

After a narrow 19-15 win over Zimbabwe in the opening round, defending champions Russia recorded a comprehensive, seven-try victory over Papua New Guinea. Russia captain and flanker Viktor Gresev again proved an unstoppable force; scoring a hat trick of tries to add to the brace he collected against Zimbabwe. Gresev now leads all scorers with five tries over two matches.

Gresev’s first try came in the third minute as the massive Russian pack brought its weight to bear early on. Sustained Russian pressure forced Papua New Guinea to concede a penalty try for repeated infringements at the ruck in the 12th minute, before Gresev claimed his second try in the 19th minute.

Papua New Guinea got on the board with a try against the run of play from winger John Ephraim in the 21st minute. The unsuccessful conversion left them trailing 21-5.

Scrumhalf Anton Ryabov found space on the fringes of a ruck to cross over for a try in the 26th minute while hooker Valery Tsnobiladze added a fifth try moments later.

Centre Tisa Kautu added three points for Papua New Guinea with a penalty shortly before half-time as Russia took an unassailable 35-8 lead into the break.

Russia were less convincing in the second half, while Papua New Guinea got off to a flying start, scoring 11 unanswered points from two penalties by Kautu and a try to flyhalf Richard Aitsi to close the gap to 35-19.

It was the second straight match where the Russian defence went walkabout after they let Zimbabwe climb back into the round 1 match. Unsurprisingly, it was Gresev who helped quell any nerves as he and Ryabov added their third and second tries respectively to seal a 49-19 win. Flyhalf Yury Kusnarev was perfect with the boot, converting all seven of Russia’s tries.

In the second match of the doubleheader at Kings Park, the hosts jumped ahead to a 17-3 half-time lead before going on to win 34-11 win, collecting a second bonus point of the tournament to stay at the top of the table after two rounds.

A dominant set piece performance by Hong Kong gave the host the run of play in the first half. Prop Alex Ng Wai-shing scored the home side’s first try in the third minute, collecting the ball at the base of a ruck beneath the posts before crashing over from in close.

With Hong Kong’s forward pack dominating early on, the speedy backline had ample ball to work with and quickly set about testing Zimbabwe’s conditioning and defence. Although battling bravely, gaps soon appeared in the visitors’ defence and fullback Alex McQueen was the first to exploit the space when he finished off a lengthy attacking phase to touch down in the corner in the eight minute.

Hong Kong flyhalf Ben Rimene was also perfect with the boot, adding both conversions and a penalty in the first half to push his side to a 17-0 lead after 25 minutes. Zimbawe’s first points came from a well-struck penalty from flyhalf Lenience Tambwera in the 30th minute to leave the score at 17-3 at halftime.

Zimbabwe had an early lift after halftime when Tambwera nailed his second penalty in the 41st minute but Rimene replied four minutes later as the sides exchanged three-pointers.

No.8 Thomas Lamboley capped his Hong Kong debut with a try in the 53rd minute as the rangy forward took out a well-deserved reward for 80 minutes of high work rate and hard graft. Rimene’s conversion pushed Hong Kong’s lead to 27-6 with 25 minutes remaining.

Alex McQueen capped another quietly devastating performance when he completed his brace in the 62nd minute with Rimene’s conversion a formality.

Centre Riaan O’Neal spoiled Hong Kong’s final patch of play as he flashed a clean pair of heels to cross over in the 65th minute but Tambwera’s conversion was off the mark. Final score 34-11.

“It was really good to get the win,” said Hong Kong captain Nick Hewson, “But we were a bit disappointed not to take some of the chances we created, especially in the second half.

“Our set piece was good, we had a high percentage of possession and the backs were creating opportunities tonight so hopefully we can execute a few more of those chances on Saturday,” Hewson added.

“Now we can go into the game against Russia with a bit of confidence. We know it is another step up, but we are well ahead of where we were last year. We are creating more plays, our ball carriers are better and our defence is stronger. We gave them points off of our mistakes today and we can’t afford that against Russia,” Hewson added.

Russia beat Hong Kong 31-12 in last year’s effective final, the rematch takes place at 5pm on 19 November at Hong Kong Football Club. Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea will play in the curtain raiser at 2pm, entry is free.

Hong Kong v Zimbabwe:
1. Adam Fullgrabe, 2. Ben Roberts*, 3. Alex Ng Wai-Shing, 4. Finlay Field, 5. Adrian Griffiths, 6. Nick Hewson (Captain), 7. Toby Fenn, 8. Thomas Lamboley*, 9. Jamie Hood (vice Captain), 10. Ben Rimene, 11. Marcus Ramage*, 12. Lee Jones, 13. Ally Maclay, 14. Ryan Meacheam, 15. Alex Mcqueen, 16. Jw Markley, 17. Jack Parfitt, 18. Rohan Cook, 19. Will Eversfield, 20. James Cunningham, 21. Cado Lee Ka-To, 22. Rowan Varty, 23. Edmund Rolston.
*Hong Kong debut

Additional reporting and image: HKRU

Men’s Asian Hockey Federation Cup

Eight teams from across the region will compete in the 5th Men’s Asian Hockey Federation Cup which will take place from the 19-27 November 2016 at King’s Park Hockey Ground.

Hong Kong is drawn in Pool A with two time defending champions Bangladesh, Taiwan and Macau. Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Uzbekistan are in Pool B. The pool matches will take place from 19-24, check the full match schedule below, and the medal matches on 26th and 27th November 2016. Entry to all matches is free.

Hong Kong v Bangladesh
6pm, 19 November @ King’s Park Hockey Ground

Hong Kong v Macau
8pm, 21 November @ King’s Park Hockey Ground

Hong Kong v Taiwan
8pm, 23 November @ King’s Park Hockey Ground

The AHF Cup was first organized by Hong Kong Hockey Association in 1997 with the idea of offering opportunities for the second tier Asian teams to gain experience in international tournaments outside of the Asian Games and the Asia Cup and improve their world rankings.

Hong Kong team manager Eddie Leung is confident ahead of the tournament “We aim to get a medal in the Cup. We hope to make good use of the home advantage. When we played against Kazakhstan in March in the FIH World League 2016 Round 1, we were exposed several times but we managed to beat them 4-3 at the end. We will take that experience into the tournament.”

Siu Chun Ming, as captain says it’s important to take each match as it comes “I always encourage the team to stay calm and be tough when we play against stronger opponents. We look forward to the Hong Kong Hockey Community’s support during the tournament.”

Hong Kong Squad
Chan Ka Chun (Kelvin), Chung Yan Chun Michael, James Shepherdson, Chan Hou Fung (Matthew), Iu Chi Him (Felix), Chow Ho Yin (Boris), Poon Chun Yan (Silas), Kwok Chun Ting (Davis), Fahim Khan, Yu Chun Hin (Tony), Siu Chun Ming (Captain), Tso Tsz Fung (Chris), Tsoi Long Ting Gabriel, To Kai Chung (Stanley), Siddick Khan, Sukhmit Singh, Tse Man Chun (Allen), Tsang Kin Kan (Ken)

5th Men’s Asian Hockey Federation Cup
Date: 19-27 November, 2016
Venue: King’s Park Hockey Ground
Tickets: Free

Hong Kong Women Prepare to Chase Rugby World Cup Dream

Hong Kong Women prepare to chase Rugby World Cup dream with “both hands” according to coach Jo Hull ahead of December’s key qualifiers against Fiji and Japan. Hull’s side host the three-team tournament that will determine the final two teams from Asia/Oceania at next year’s 12-team World Cup in Ireland.

Hong Kong begin their bid for a debut World Cup appearance on 9 December against Fiji, who beat Papua New Guinea 37-10 in the Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship at the start of November to progress to the final stage of qualification. Japan face Fiji on 13 December before Hong Kong’s tie with the Asian champions completes the round robin fixtures four days later.

“It is an amazing opportunity to go to a World Cup that I don’t think the players have had before and there is a real belief in the team that it is not a dream anymore and we are trying to grab it with both hands,” said Hull. “These players know they need to get everything right against Fiji, which means our set pieces and most importantly the contact area and breakdown, are our key focus. The players are excited, but we know we will need to earn this.”

Hull has named an expanded 31-player squad in preparation for the December qualifiers, with Hong Kong entertaining Kazakhstan in two training games this week. Experienced forwards Royce Chan Leong-sze and Christy Cheng Ka-chi return to the squad while new additions include prop Wong Yuen-shan and back Jessica Ho Wai-on.

“We are looking at players who are performing at the moment” added Hull. “The squad has worked very hard over the summer with a series of training camps and strength and conditioning sessions to help minimise errors, but also to bring out the style of rugby we want to develop. We are very positive in our approach to the qualifiers and the Fiji game is everything as it is the first game and a win would position us very well to advance to the World Cup.”

The league-wide representative competition, the Super Series, kick-started the final preparations for the World Cup qualifiers. “The Super Series helped us draw a line in the sand as to how we wanted to play and the players were then able to take that into training,” said Hull. “It has also been encouraging to see the club games getting to a higher level, but we still need to prepare for that step up to international rugby.”

Ahead of the World Cup Qualification Tournament, Hong Kong will play two friendlies against Kazakhstan, who appeared at the 2014 World Cup in France, on 16 and 20 November as part of a key week of training and preparation.

“Kazakhstan are a tough, physical side who are good at running. We thought they would be good preparation for playing Fiji in that they will offer a similar competition to what Fiji will look like in terms of their physicality, and their desire to play an offload game and keep the ball in play as much as possible,” said Hull.

Fiji scored six tries in their win over Papua New Guinea in the inaugural Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship in Suva as the hosts played their first test in 10 years and the visitors their first ever.

“We saw that game and we are aware that rugby is in the blood in Fiji so they understand the game quite well,” added Hull. “Fiji are big and strong, so we need to go into that first game knowing how we want to play against them. We haven’t played them before in fifteens and that will pose some challenges in our preparations.”

In stark contrast, Hong Kong know Japan extremely well having lost 39-3 and 30-3 in a shortened Asia Rugby Championship earlier this year. “Japan are fast and like to play a high tempo game, but we are confident that we are approaching both games with the objective of finishing in the top two,” added Hull.

The next Women’s Rugby World Cup takes place in Ireland from 9-16 August 2017, with the winner of the qualifiers in Hong Kong going on to face the hosts, (fourth placed finishers in 2014) as well as France and Australia in pool C. The runners-up in Hong Kong will take on 2014 World Cup runners-up Canada, New Zealand and Wales in pool A.

Hong Kong Women’s XVs Training Squad:
Forwards: Karen So Hoi-Ting, Amelie Seure, Angela Chan Ka-Yan, Royce Chan Leong-Sze, Chan Tsz-Ching, Cheng Ching-To, Christy Cheng Ka-Chi, Chow Mei-Nam, Christine Gordon, Tammy Lau Nga-Wun, Lee Ka-Shun, Melody Li Nim-Yan, Sharon Tsang, Jasmine Cheung Shuk-Han, Winnie Siu Wing-Ni, Wong Yuen-Shan.
Backs: Adrienne Garvey, Candy Cheng Tsz-Ting, Chong Ka-Yan, Colleen Tjosvold, Jess Ho, Ivy Kwong Sau-Yan, Lau Sze-Wa, Lee Tsz-Ting, Lindsay Varty, Mak Ho-Yee, Natasha Olson-Thorne, Aggie Poon Pak-Yan, Rose Hopewell-Fong, Sham Wai-Sum, Cindy Yuen Lok-Yee.

Hong Kong v Kazakhstan
International Friendlies
Date: 7:30pm, 16, 20 November, 2016
Venue: King’s Park
Tickets: Free

Additional reporting and image: HKRU

Cup of Nations Preview

The Cup of Nations returns this weekend. The four-team competition features countries selected with an eye on Hong Kong’s potential opponents in the Rugby World Cup 2019 qualification stages. 2015 champions and favourites to defend their title Russia, Zimbabwe, debutants Papua New Guinea and hosts Hong Kong play a round-robin series on three match days, – the 11, 15 and 19 of November.

“We want to win of course” said coach Leigh Jones. “The tournament will provide some important insight, specifically where we are and where we still need to improve, which is particularly important given the new pathways established for Rugby World Cup qualification.”

Under the new Rugby World Cup qualification format, Asia will send it’s top-ranked side, currently Japan, through to the World Cup as Asia 1. Asia 2, the spot filled by Hong Kong in the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualification campaign, will now play a home and away series versus Oceania 4, with the winners advancing to the penultimate stage of qualification, an international repechage series, which in the past has featured Russia and Zimbabwe.

In preparation for the tournament Jones has been working with an expanded training squad of 36 players who were given an extended break from the local Premiership rugby to participate in international training. The extra week allowed Jones to put the squad – comprised of Elite Rugby Programme players, Hong Kong sevens squad members, semi-professional players in the domestic leagues and National Age Grade graduates, through their paces.

“During the training week, we played a mini Cup of Nations format, effectively simulating the varying styles we are likely to face in the Cup of Nations,” said Jones. Who added “This is a great competition for us as it offers the opportunity to expose our players to high intensity matches against teams outside of Asia. With three very different tests in the space of nine days, we will need to be smart in how we use the squad and in selecting the right players to suit the different approaches we will see.”

First up for Hong Kong on the 11 November at King’s Park are Papua New Guinea who will be looking to continue a run of wins over Tahiti, American Samoa and the Solomon Islands that saw them win the 2015 Oceania Cup.

“It’s been difficult to get information on Papua New Guinea, so they are a bit of an unknown but we expect a tough encounter,” said Jones. “They should be quite physical and hard-hitting, so we will need to counter that with a very structured game and will rely on our set piece to perform.”

In Zimbabwe, Jones expects a similar style to that Hong Kong faced when touring Kenya last summer. “Zimbabwe aren’t too dissimilar to Kenya in that they are very athletic and play a very individual style of rugby. We will need to rely on our collective strength and discipline to overcome their individual skills.”

Zimbabwe will be hunting for it’s first win in Hong Kong and it’s first test victory in over a year, after losing all three matches here last year, including a 30-11 loss against Hong Kong. The Sables’ most recent test action was this summer when they lost to Namibia, Kenya and Uganda in the Africa Cup.

Russia, at 21, the highest ranked team in the competition return in good form and are likely to prove the biggest hurdle to Hong Kong’s efforts to win the Cup for the first time. Russia played their most recent tests in June – against tier one unions Canada and USA (both losses). Prior to that they beat Spain, Germany and Portugal in the 2016 European Nations Cup, losing only to Romania.

“Our approach for Russia will be almost diametrically opposite to the first two matches. They are power orientated with a big set piece and play a Northern Hemisphere style game. We will need a different philosophy for this test, one where we try to bring a high tempo into the game, negate their forward dominance and rely on more of our game-changers in the backline,” said Jones.

Cup of Nations
Hong Kong, Russia, Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea
Date: 11, 15, 19 November, 2016
Venues: King’s Park, HK Football Club
Tickets: Free
More info:
11 November @ King’s Park
5pm – Russia v Zimbabwe
7pm – Hong Kong v Papua New Guinea

15 November @ King’s Park
5pm – Russia v Papua New Guinea
7pm – Hong Kong v Zimbabwe

19 November @ HK Football Club
5pm – Zimbabwe v Papua New Guinea
7pm – Hong Kong v Russia

Additional reporting and image: HKRU

Match Report: University Pirates 0-39 HKFC Fire @ Sandy Bay – 5 November, 2016

With the bitter taste of recent defeat still lingering in their mouths, Tash Ellis-Enright reports the HKFC Fire were in no mood to admire the beautiful Sandy Bay sea view.

Recent changes to player positions and some of the girls playing against former team mates meant that the Fire went onto the pitch full of excitement and nerves. As always, they were ready to fight for a win!

The first half saw the University Pirates working really hard with some tough girls on defence. The Fire forwards were equally as tough, hitting hard and low, and managing to win most of their scrums. These strong girls showed an excellent display of pod work and created the platform that saw the Fire score three first half tries through Crystal Wray, Apple Lau and Maggie Wong who snagged her first of season. Half-time score 17-0.

After half time Fire went back onto the pitch; they fought hard, as if no points had already been scored. Fire sharpened up their defensive line and played most of the game in the Pirates half of the pitch. The forwards continued their strong work on offence as well allowing Apple score her second try of the match. The backs shone through, working hard as a unit, to see Crystal score 2 break away tries and complete her hat-trick. Rabbit joined Maggie in scoring her first try of the season while Helen successfully kicked 2 conversions!

With a great display of sportsmanship from players and supporters, it was a well-deserved 39-0 win for Fire! Just goes to show that hard work and extra practice really does pay off!

HKFC Fire
Nicole Lai, Lok Ting Chan, Marueen Cheng, Caroline Lau, Lu Hou, Zuza Osinska, Cynthia Luk, Apple Lau, Helen Lee, Rabbit Leung, Maggie Wong, Tash Ellis-Enright, Crystal Wray, Mo Cheng, Casey Gallagher, Karus Leung, Amy Kong, Selene, Morgane, Tracy Tong, Alex Fraser.
Tries: Apple Lau (2), Maggie Wong (1), Crystal Wray (3), Rabbit Leung (1) Conversion: Helen Lee (2)
Coaches: Gloria Cheung, John Hannon, Ed Barker