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Match Report: HKCC Ladies 10 – 36 USRC Tigers – 15 October, 2016

The HKCC Ladies were feeling hot hot HOT as temperatures soared last Saturday. You could practically see the steam curling up from the fizzling astroturf as Happy Valley baked in the afternoon sun. With another loss under their belts and few subs to offer respite from the impending dehydration, the Ladies demonstrated inspiringly strong determination ahead of the first half against USRC Tigers.

A great starting attack saw the ball heading straight towards the Tigers’ try line just after Kick-off, with a penalty leading to the first lineout won by the Ladies. The Asian communicator – Diana Li – made her comeback in full force, scoring the first try for the Ladies 7 minutes in. No conversion.

The rest of the first half saw each side constantly scrabbling and grabbing for the ball, with the Tigers showcasing their impressive mauling and rucking techniques. Despite some great defensive tackling, the heat got to the Ladies as the Tigers broke through the line scoring their first converted try. Half time 5-7.

A short half time water break saw both teams seeking sanctuary in the little shade that is offered at Happy Valley, and a pep talk from Coach Nesbitt gave the Ladies a second wind – despite the complete lack of it in meteorological terms!

The Tigers though seemed to have benefited most from the break, with one of their wings scoring a try almost immediately from the second half kick-off. Discouraged and slightly dehydrated, the Ladies struggled to keep up their defensive line, and a speedy pair of breakthroughs on the wings saw another two tries for the Tigers.

With the heat and glare from the sun becoming even more intense, both teams were certainly experiencing exhaustion and confusion. A couple of moments saw Tigers tackling players who weren’t even carrying the ball, and the Ladies were remineded to keep their tackles low.

A lack of communication in the defensive line opened up the pitch to the Tigers who scored another pair of tries, one converted (5-36), that almost pushed the Ladies to their limits. As usual, the Ladies fought back in a final push and found their second wind – albeit a little too late in the day.

The Ladies managed to steal the ball and formed an impressive maul, allowing Captain Lynda Nazer to place the ball over the line. A great show of teamwork despite the elements and a disheartening score to fight back against.

HKCC Ladies
Forwards: Nobuko Oda, Wawa Li, Jo Harvey, Katie Rowbottom, Mhairi McLaughlin, Terri Lau, Lauren Petersen, Carolyn Champion, Kikinay Kemp
Backs: Lynda Nazer, Tinley Wong, Diana Li, Josie Jolley, Isobel O’Connor, Allison Mak, Brenda Chan, Elane Lau, Hoiyi Li, Christy Ma, Serene Yee
Tries: Diana Li, Lynda Nazer
Coach: Jeremy Nesbitt

Premiership Round-up: HKFC Ice beat Kowloon in Dramatic Fashion

Kowloon Ladies lost a thriller as they nearly upended the Premiership form-book in round three – falling just short in a 22-17 loss to HKFC Ice. In other Premiership action, Valley Black outclassed City Sparkle 51-0, while USRC Tigers beat CWB Phoenix 32-0 at Kings Park.

HKFC scored twice as Stephanie “SSY“ Siu and Jamie Bourk both crossed the try-line before Kowloon put it’s first points on the board with an unconverted try by Chloe Mak Ho Yee. Ice scored a third try through Sophie Short just before the hooter to take a comfortable 17-5 lead at half time.

Kowloon fought back with two tries in the second half the last coming in the 75th minute to pull level at 17-17. Despite a rash of six injuries in the second half, it was Ice who used the clock best as Crystal Wray scored in the dying seconds to secure the 22-17 win.

“We lost in the last minute because we lacked a bit of control late. We didn’t have to rush things as much as we did, but the performance in the second half was exactly what I was looking for,” said Kowloon coach Jonathan Ho.

“Scoring in the first half gave us some belief and the second half was a huge improvement. Just a tiny bit more and the game could have been ours. We can now look ahead confidently to Tigers next week,” Ho added.

“It was a tough day at the office and we were glad to come through,” said HKFC coach David Wigley. “We expect every game to be tough and today shows why. At half time we thought we were in a comfortable position: our lineouts were going well, and even though our scrums were problematic in places, we felt well ahead. We let them start the second half better and fair play to them, they turned the screw quite well. We had six injuries in the second half so we had to do a lot of adjusting. We were successful in reshaping and that was pleasing to see.”

Valley Black ran out easy winners against City Sparkle, improving their record to 3-0 on the season. Valley led 26-0 at halftime and closely mirrored that strike rate in the second half, a remarkable output considering they spent stretches with 13 on the pitch after having two players sin-binned for repeat infringements.

“It was a good game and a good result. It was quite difficult and feisty in places,” said Valley coach James Elliot. “They were a bit physical and our girls couldn’t get the fast ball that they wanted.”

USRC Tigers beat CWB Phoenix 34-0 but coach Liu Kwok-leung seemed pleased to have come through with any type of win at all:

“It was a very hard game. In the first half we played great and everything was going according to plan. In the second half we got some injuries, and had to bring on some younger players. That was when we lost our concentration. We lost momentum and focus, and made a lot of errors. They put us under pressure, but we worked hard in defence,” said Liu

It was another tough blow for Phoenix, who have faced the stiffest schedule in the early going – meeting last season’s top three in succession to start the year.

“In the end, we were very strong in our attack, but the players were not ready,” said a disappointed Causeway Bay coach Ocean Chow.

“We weren’t mentally ready in the first half. We raised our game and created some opportunities to score in the second, but we failed to follow through. We didn’t play as well as we did last week against Gai Wu. If we had, then the scores would have been closer, or it could have even been a win.”

Additional reporting: HKRU

Women’s Rugby Results – 15 October, 2016

Premiership

City Sparkle 0-53 Valley Black
@ Shek Kip Mei, Kick-off: 18:00
Premiership round-up

HKFC Ice 22-17 Kowloon
@ Kings Park, Kick-off: 18:00
Premiership round-up, match report

CWB Phoenix 0-32 USRC Tigers
@ Kings Park, Kick-off: 19:30
Premiership round-up

National League 1

HKCC 10-36 USRC Tigers
@ Happy Valley, Kick-off: 15:00

Tai Po Dragons 44-5 HK Scottish Kukris
@ KGV, Kick-off: 18:00
Match report

Revolution SRC 40-5 Valley Red
@ Kings Park, Kick-off: 18:00

National League 2

Uni-Pirates 0-31 Tai Po Dragons
@ KG V, Kick-off: 16:30

Tin Shui Wai 10-14 HKFC Fire
@ Tin Shui Wai, Kick-off: 16:30

CWB Lammergeier 5-29 Police
@ Police Boundary Street, Kick-off: 18:00

Kowloon 17-7 Gai Wu Hawks
@ Kings Park, Kick-off: 19:30

Photo: Phoebe Leung

Can City Sparkle Against Valley Black?

Premiership debutants City Sparkle take on a Valley Black team unbeaten for two seasons in the third round of the 2016-17 tournament.

City coach Fung Kei-hang acknowledges that his side’s steep learning curve is about to face an even higher gradient: “It’s going to be a tough game for us but we will focus on our defence and hopefully be able to create some counter opportunities to mount our attack.”

In keeping with this season’s objective of acclimatising to the top flight, Fung views the Valley tie as another crucial learning opportunity for his side. “We have learned a lot from the last two games. We are still struggling to get used to the intensity of play at this level but are working hard on building our own intensity in terms of bringing our pace and quickness into the game.”

Fung is encouraged by some early signs of progress: “We have improved our recycling from the back significantly compared to last season and we managed to score a few points against Football Club last week so we can build from that,” Fung added.

The USRC Tigers will be roaring to go against SCAA CWB Phoenix after a stop-start beginning to the season. They were in action in week one, before joining all of the clubs on a bye for the Women’s Super Series the following weekend and then had a Premiership bye last week – leaving them with only one game over the last three weeks.

Coach Liu Kwok-leung is not concerned that the lengthy lay-off has hampered his team’s preparations. “We’ve done a lot to prepare our mindset for this and to prepare physically. We’re missing three of our sevens players this weekend, but that just creates opportunities for the younger players,” said Liu.

Tigers are bracing for a backlash from Causeway Bay who have yet to record their first win after facing last year’s Grand Finalists Valley and Gai Wu Falcons in the opening weeks. “It will be a hard game and we are ready for that,” said Liu.

“South China are always aggressive, especially early in the match. From playing them over the past few seasons we know we will need to focus on the contact area. It will be a real challenge for us as most of our team don’t have the physical size they have.

“We have been focusing on our defence and have had some hard, physical practice sessions. We know we can win when we play to our game plan so it’s all about our mindset and our discipline. With some experienced players away a lot will rest on the younger players stepping up and I am confident that the they can do it.”

HKFC Ice will look to back up their opening win with another ‘w’ this weekend over Kowloon after a solid start to the season last weekend against City.

“We had a positive start to the season with a tough game against City. Our forwards were key against them, they had an outstanding performance and took the match to them.”

Coach Wigley is pleased with the enthusiastic start but wants to channel his team’s energy better saying, “We need to focus more on improving the structure of our play. We were frenetic in the opener and even though there was a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of our play was disorganised and we wasted a lot of energy.”

Despite the presumed gap between the two sides, with Kowloon finishing near the bottom of the table last season, Wigley remains cautious:

“We go in to every game looking to win – whether by a few or by a lot it doesn’t matter – we take every game as it comes. Even though Kowloon have some losses we don’t consider that. We don’t know what teams have been doing over the break so we don’t take anything for granted.

“Kowloon are strong in the forwards – as are we – so I expect a real battle in the packs. I’m confident in the quality of our forwards and we expect to win the majority of those confrontations,” Wigley added.

Kowloon coach Jonathan Ho is also expecting a tough encounter: “Last season we had two very close matches against Football Club – even though they won both, they were tight affairs. We weren’t too far away from them so we can take some confidence into this match.

“Football Club are very balanced. Rose Fong is a big threat at the back and Claire Forster, who used to be one of our players, is playing well for them up front. But our forwards have also improved and our backline isn’t too far off of Football Club’s pace, so I expect it will be a fast game and we will try to involve our backs to good effect.”

Ho is also confident of a turnaround in his side’s fortunes this year: “The season doesn’t look good in terms of our points on the board, but behind the scenes there has been quite a significant improvement. That isn’t just my view either; I have heard the same from other coaches in the league.

“I think we are most improved in the ruck and I’m pleased that the new players are getting used to being part of this group. Our backs are also more competitive even against the top teams. But we still need to improve our aggression, our tackling and our reaction speed,” Ho concluded.

Additional reporting and image: HKRU

Women’s Rugby Fixtures – 15 October, 2016

Match Report: Women Premiership Round 2 – 8 October, 2016

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