University 0-20 City Twinkles
@ Shek Kip Mei, Kick-off: 16:30
Tin Shui Wai 0-7 Kowloon
@ Tin Shui Wai, Kick-off: 16:30
Police Sirens 29-0 Tin Shui Wai
@ Police Boundary Street, Kick-off: 19:30
Images: bc magazine, Phoebe Leung
CWB Phoenix 13-3 City Sparkle
@ HKIED, Kick-off: 16:00
Gai Wu Falcons 79-0 HKFC Ice
@ KG V, Kick-off: 16:30
Tai Po Dragons 20-0 Kowloon
@ HKIED, Kick-off: 17:30
USRC Tigers 20-38 Valley Black
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:00
National League 1
Valley Red 5-34 Gai Wu Fawkes
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 13:30
USRC Tigers v HKCC
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 15:00
HK Scottish Kukris 5-7 Revolution SRC
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:0
CWB Lammergeier v Kowloon
@ HKIED, Kick-off: 14:30
University 5-46 Gai Wu Hawks
@ Tai Hang Tung, Kick-off: 16:30
Tin Shui Wai v HKFC Fire
@ KG V, Kick-off: 18:00
Police Sirens 30-0 City Twinkles
@ Police Boundary Street, Kick-off: 18:00
Images: bc magazine, Takumi Photography
Congratulations to Gai Wu Falcons, winners of the Women’s Premiership 2017-18!
photo: Takumi Photography
It’s the final round of the 2017-18 women’s rugby season and there’s all to play for at the top and bottom of all three divisions. With teams also looking for an advantage going into the Grand Championships it promises to be another fiercely competitive day of rugby.
In the Premiership Gai Wu Falcons lead Valley Black by a single point. To take the title for a fourth successive year, Valley will need a bonus point victory over USRC Tigers (18:00, King’s Park) and hope that HKFC Ice can contain Gai Wu (16:30, KG V). Quite why the HKRU can’t schedule the games to kick-off at the same time instead of giving Valley the advantage is unknown.
In the insultingly names Premiership Development Legaue three teams have a shot at wrapping up top spot. Kowloon, in second place, need a four-try win over leaders Tai Po Dragons (17:30, HKIED), while third-placed CWB Phoenix need a demolition of winless City Sparkle (16:00, HKIED) and a narrow win for Kowloon.
The USRC Tigers head to King’s Park touting their October draw with Gai Wu as evidence that they have what it takes to bring down Valley Black, whose seeming invincibility was dispelled in their 22-15 loss to Gai Wu, two weeks ago. Both teams have near-full-strength squads, with their Hong Kong sevens players back from the Coral Coast Sevens.
Tigers coach Fan Shun Kei has opted to play exciting 17-year-old Lara Schats at fly half, and move New Zealander Sarah Swinbanks to fullback where she can use her strength and kicking skills to cover the back line. His only notable absentee is winger Hebe Talas, resting after a concussion in her previous game.
“Lara is the youngest in the squad, but is a very attacking player. In the fly half role, she gives us an extra possible combination for the Grand Championships. We now have the option to swap around for each team we play,” Fan explains.
Fan is brimming with optimism about the opportunity to cap the season by beating one of the top two. “Unfortunately we are not able to compete for the league leadership,” Fan added. “But our girls are very excited because of Valley’s defeat by Gai Wu. This is our rehearsal for the Grand Champs and hopefully it will bring out our best game.”
“Valley have some really good players, but do not always play as a team. If we can mark up their important players, and shut down their attack, we’ve got a chance. Our attack this year is quite sharp, and we should be able to score against them, as Football Club did last week,” points up Fan.
Unsurprisingly, that’s not how it looks to Valley’s player-coach, former Samoa captain Bella Milo. She recognises that the league win may have slipped from their grasp, ruing that their single loss to date in the season doesn’t overcome Gai Wu’s two losses and a draw. But the team are focused on securing a fourth consecutive Grand Championships title, and are going about it in typically thorough fashion.
Milo had the players watch and honestly analyse the video of their streak-breaking loss to Gai Wu. The team saw some correctable errors that led to a dip in confidence that she believes they can put behind them, with no major revision of the approach that notched 51 straight wins across three seasons.
Milo expects a tough match but comes well-armed. “We can’t take anything for granted, after losing to Gai Wu. Tigers have all their sevens players back and a strong team so it’s going to be a battle right through the 80 minutes. But this is the first week this season that we have a possible best starting line-up. So this is a good situation as we go into the [Grand Championship] quarters and semi-finals,” she observes.
In Women’s National League 1, leaders Revolution SRC will hope to retain the WNL 1 Challenge Shield for a fifth week when they play HK Scottish Kukris, just two points adrift in third (18:00, King’s Park). In WNL2, second-placed Police Sirens play City Twinkles (18:00, PBS), eying a third week in possession of the National League 2 Challenge Shield.
Additional reporting and images: hkru, Phoebe Leung
USRC Tigers ran unbeaten Gai Wu Falcons close at So Kon Po, losing a tight encounter, 12-0. In the weekend’s other Women’s Premiership match Kowloon beat City Sparkle 21-0. The match between Valley Black and HKFC Ice was postponed. For the National league 1 & 2 results click here.
The tight contest between last year’s second and third places finishers saw the Tigers trail 5-0 at the break despite Falcons exerting a strong territorial advantage in the first forty minutes.
“We played superb rugby in the first half,” said Falcons coach Lai Yiu-pang. “We kept Tigers under a lot of pressure and penned them back in their half for most of the opening period. We knew that the game was going to be a physical test and we matched up with them well. I think they only managed to get the ball in our half one or two times in the first half.”
Lai credited his forward pack, laden with Hong Kong fifteens and sevens stars, as the difference makers this afternoon, saying, “Our forwards did really well in both attack and defence. We have a lot of sevens players in the backline who are just coming off their international season and I think they need to develop their fifteens-sense a bit more as we made a lot of errors in the backline today.”
The Falcons had their full compliment of 13 national squad representatives available including Aggie Poon Pak-yan who played for 65 minutes in her first fifteens game of the season, after being injured in the Asian sevens series.
Despite the loss, Tigers coach Liu Kwok-leung was proud of his team’s efforts: “Compared to our game against Valley [a 32-3 loss] last weekend we played much better today. The girls took the lessons from last week to heart and showed a big improvement.”
Ahead of the game, Liu had warned his side of the importance of closing down Gai Wu’s speed and attack in open play. That comment proved true as Gai Wu pulled away for good in the second half after capitalising on a rare defensive miscue by Tigers, when a botched clearance kick failed to make touch and was returned by Falcon’s speedy wing Chong Ka-yan for a try that put the game out of reach for Tigers.
Liu also bemoaned his side’s inability to convert their chances saying, “We had a lot of possession but we couldn’t take our opportunities to score. The game was really close especially in the first half with both teams’ defences playing very well and forcing a lot of errors.
Our defensive effort was top notch. We really shut them down in the first half and our line speed and communication on defence was really good, but we just lacked some composure on attack.”
“We are looking forward to the second round of matches and will analyse our early performance with the players, but there is a lot we can build off from this match. I think we may need to refine some of our patterns and structures when we play against the top teams like Valley and Falcons, but it is coming together well,” Liu added.
The Falcons’ win brought its hot streak to five matches, during which they have only conceded a single unconverted try. Next up they taken on Valley Black for what promises to be the match of the season so far next week. While the Tigers now prepare to take on Football Club.
Kowloon collected its first win of the season, 21-0 over Premiership debutants City, who were hunting for their first win in Hong Kong Women’s Rugby’s top flight.
Additional reporting and image: HKrugby
USRC Tigers 0-12 Gai Wu Falcons
@ So Kon Po, Kick-off: 16:30
Kowloon 21-0 City Sparkle
@ KG V, Kick-off: 18:00
Valley Black v HKFC Ice – Postponed
@ HK Football Club, Kick-off: 18:00
Valley Red 0-22 Tai Po Dragons
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:00
HK Scottish v Revolution SRC
@ Shek Kip Mei, Kick-off: 18:00
USRC Tigers 0-26 Gai Wu Fawkes
@ So Kon Po, Kick-off: 18:00
Kowloon 7-34 CWB Lammergeier
@ KG V, Kick-off: 16:30
Gai Wu Hawks 17-20 Tai Po Dragons
@ Tai Hung Tang, Kick-off: 16:30
HKFC Fire 39-0 University Pirates
@ Sandy Bay, Kick-off: 16:30
Police Sirens 46-0 City
@ Police Boundary Street, Kick-off: 18:00
Image: HKrugby
USRC Tigers 3-32 Valley Black
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 15:00
Gai Wu Falcons 65-5 HKFC Ice
@ HK Football Club, Kick-off: 18:00
Kowloon 0-12 CWB Phoenix
@ KG V, Kick-off: 18:00
Revolution SRC 10-15 Gai Wu Fawkes
@ KG V, Kick-off: 16:30
HKCC 10-81 Tai Po Dragons
@ Tai Hung Tang, Kick-off: 16:30
USRC Tigers 10-12 HK Scottish Kukris
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:00
Uni-Pirates 5-27 Kowloon
@ KG V, Kick-off: 15:00
City 0-22 Tin Shui Wai
@ Tin Shui Wai, Kick-off: 15:00
Gai Wu Hawks 12-20 CWB Lammergeier
@ Shek Kip Mei, Kick-off: 16:30
HKFC Fire 0-19 Police Sirens
@ Police Boundary Street, Kick-off: 18:00
Photo: HKRU
