The dates for this year’s Macau Grand Prix have been confirmed as the weekend of the 19-22 November, 2015. Ticket reservations can be made online now at www.macauticket.com.
62nd Macau Grand Prix
Date: 19-22 November, 2015
Venue: Circuit Guia
Tickets: $900, $550, $50 ticket reservations at MacauTicket
The 2015 Touch World Cup has come to an end in Coff’s Harbour in Australia, and Hong Kong’s first ever participation has ended with an extremely creditable 18th ranking in the Mixed Open Division with a record of played 9, won 4, lost 4 and 1 draw – full results below. Although the tournament was hit by torrential rain storms which left pitches resembling swimming pools on more than one occasion, it was a great experience for this young side who will now look forward with greater confidence to the next World Cup which will be held in Malaysia. The Mixed Open Cup Final was contested by traditional touch powerhouses New Zealand and Australia, with the hosts taking the honours and the World Cup trophy.
Hong Kong’s campaign got off to a tough start as they faced the mighty English side, but although it was a steep learning curve they managed to get on the score sheet, with vice captain Lai Yiu Pang getting in the history books with Hong Kong’s first ever World Cup try! After the completion of the pool games the team were ranked 3rd in their group and moved into division three, where they next faced 6 games against Chile, Middle East, Germany, Holland, China and Italy. A record of 3 wins, 1 draw, and 2 losses meant a return match against Italy on the final day’s play-offs, and a convincing win left Hong Kong ranked 18th at the conclusion of their first World Cup adventure.
“Even against the big name opponents our team wasn’t overawed and played with aggression and increasing confidence, and thanks to our preparation our energy and fitness levels were of a good standard,” explained coach Zanio Yong. “We achieved a ranking of 18th on our debut, but with seven different try scorers throughout the competition I feel it showed we played as a team rather than individuals, and I’m very proud of all the squad members. Our thanks to our sponsors ANZ as well as the HK Touch Association and the HKRFU for making this possible.”
Day 1 – 29th April
England 8 v Hong Kong 1 (LAI Yiu-pang)
USA 6 v Hong Kong 2 (AU Chi-wai, NG Chok-shing)
Day 2 – 30th April
Chile 6 v Hong Kong 2 (WAN Kwok-kwong, LAI Siu-hong)
Day 4 – 2nd May
Middle East 1 v Hong Kong 1 (KWOK Kak-ah)
Germany 0 v Hong Kong 3 (LAM Ka-lok, NG Chok-shing x2)
Netherlands 2 v Hong Kong 3 (LAM Ka-lok, WAN Kwok-kwong x2)
China 2 v Hong Kong 1 (NG Chok-shing)
Italy 0 v Hong Kong 1 (LAI Yiu-pang)
Day 5 – 3rd May
Play-off
Italy 2 v Hong Kong 5 (FONG Chun-sin x2, LAI Yiu-pang x2, WAN Kwok-kwong)
Hong Kong final World Cup ranking – 18th
Full results www.touchworldcup.com
Hong Kong didn’t win the war, leave alone the battles, yet head coach Andy Hall was pleased that his side had made progress by claiming “mini-victories” over Japan in the Asia Rugby Championship in Tokyo on Saturday.
“This was a much-better performance than against South Korea last week. We won quite a few mini-victories unfortunately we didn’t have enough of those mini-victories to affect the outcome,” Hall said.
Japan ran in seven tries and kept a clean sheet to register a 41-0 victory over Asia’s number two team, Hong Kong. After keeping their unbeaten record intact Japan stormed to the top of the three-team standings with 12 points. South Korea is second with six points while Hong Kong are in third place with two points.
All three teams have played two matches with South Korea travelling to Fukuoka, Japan for Round 4 next Saturday (9 May).
“We wanted a reaction from last week’s (poor) performance against Korea and we got that today. Unfortunately we didn’t have a platform to exert pressure on Japan. We didn’t win enough ball and when we did, we failed to keep hold of it. When this happens it makes life difficult,” Hall said.
Hong Kong, who began with lock Adam Butterfield making his debut, troubled Japan in the scrum but couldn’t hold their own in the lineouts allowing their opponents to dominate.
But it took 17 minutes for Japan to breach the line against a determined and dogged Hong Kong defence with winger Akihito Yamada completing a quickly taken tap to cross over by the left corner flag.
It didn’t open up the floodgates with Hong Kong slowing the game down cleverly in a stop-start affair resulting in a large crown of nearly 9,000 at the Prince Chichibu Stadium remaining subdued.
Japan led 19-0 at the break with two more tries from centre Karne Hesketh and lock forward Luke Thompson with fullback Ayumu Goromaru converting two.
Hong Kong lost openside flanker Matt Lamming to the sin-bin soon after the game resumed and in his absence Japan scored twice with centre Yu Tamura and Yamada completing his brace.
Midway through the second half Hong Kong was reduced to 14 men again when winger Charlie Higson-Smith failed to roll away from a breakdown. Japan again capitalised with No.8 Ryu Holani scoring from a five-metre scrum before substitute winger Yoshikazu Fujita completed the victory-march by dotting down near the right corner flag.
“We showed good intent today,’” said Japan head coach Eddie Jones. “But our handling let us down”.
Source: HKRTU; Editing: bc magazine
LimitlessChallengeHK
Date: 8am 7 June, 2015
Venue: West Kowloon Culture District, West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade
Tickets: $400, $380, $20
Stanley International Dragon Boat Championships 2015
Date: 10:30am 20 June, 2015
Venue: Stanley Main Beach
Tickets: Free
The 4th Sports Expo 2015
When: 14-16 August, 2015
Where: Rotunda 2 + Star Hall
Tickets: free
I-1 World MuayThai Grand Extreme 2015
Date: 7pm, 2 November, 2015
Venue: KITEC, Star Hall
Tickets: $1,000, $600, $400, $300, $200 from HKTicketing
IMPI Fighting Championship World Series
Date: 6:45pm, 31 July, 2015
Venue: Queen Elizabeth Stadium, Arena
Tickets: $480, $380, $200 from URBTIX
