Gai Wu Falcons continued their perfect start to the Women’s Premiership season beating City Sparkle 58-0 in round four. In the other matches HKFC Ice beat CWB Phoenix 22-14 at King’s Park while the USRC Tigers beat Kowloon 49-0.
The return of Gai Wu’s sevens stars proved too much for Premiership debutants City as Chong Ka-yan ran in four tries alone. Coach Lai Yiu-pang also credited Melody Li Nim-yan for her commitment and work rate and welcomed sevens captain Christy Cheng Ka-chi back for her first fifteens action this season.
“It was really good to get the sevens girls back. Christy played about 30 minutes and she looked really good and Melody was all over the park today. Ka-yan [Chong] may have even had a fifth try it was hard to keep track,” said Lai.
Gai Wu prevented their opponents from scoring for a third consecutive game this season and have now posted 145 points for to zero against over just three matches.
Despite this prodigious strike rate, the Falcons still trail Valley Black – who were on bye this weekend – on points differential. Valley are on +154 after three wins to start the season, keeping the Falcons nestled in second place on the table behind last year’s double-winners.
In other Premiership action, USRC Tigers mauled Kowloon 49-0. It was a disappointing set-back for a Kowloon side that had come within a minute of claiming their first win of the season last week against HKFC and were looking to string together another strong performance. But the Tigers proved too strong.
Tigers coach Liu Kwok-leung was pleased the way his side stuck to their desired structure saying, “This result is what we planned for. We followed our game plan all the way, kept our intensity high and used our width and attacking space well. Everyone played their part well. It was very smooth.”
Liu was also pleased to have his own sevens players back, none more so than the influential Natasha Olson-Thorne. “Natasha was a key player for us tonight. At times when we struggled with our decision-making and the ball was getting messy, she always showed the leadership to rebuild momentum.”
HKFC Ice had the best of its second tight encounter in as many weeks beating CWB Phoenix 22-14. Ice’s forward pack proved the difference in a strong opening half, keeping Causeway Bay under near constant pressure with the first try coming midway through the half.
The pressure led to penalties for Causeway Bay and a succession of yellow cards enabled Football Club to add a second try on a 13-strong Causeway Bay shortly before halftime. Football Club added a buffer-try in the third quarter but Causeway Bay fought back with two successive tries to close the gap to 17-14 before Club collected a bonus point try for the 22-14.
“It was a ding-dong forwards battle,” said HKFC coach David Wigley. “Causeway Bay really upped their game in the second half and had us worried. They have some big strong forwards, and as we got a bit lazy in defence, we were struggling to control their pack.”
Wigley singled out Rosie Fong for her masterful control of the match and scrumhalf Henrietta Wong for solid display.
Full women’s rugby results for 22 October, 2016 here
Additional reporting and image: HKRU