Old Mutual International Men’s Premiership Round 6 Highlights
The game of the week in the Old Mutual International Men’s Premiership saw Bloomberg HK Scottish put on a clinic in a 68-17 win over Herbert Smith FreehillsHKCC.
After the Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers defeated SocieteGeneraleValley 28-10 on Thursday night, Natixis HKFC rounded out the week with a 19-12 win over Kowloon.
The 51-point victory was Scottish’s biggest in their history and it came on the back of 10 tries and some solid defence.
“I think so, I’ve been here five-and-a-half seasons and the club was only a year old when I got here and the first year they had a lot of hidings,” coach Craig Hammond said.
“They’re a good team, too, Cricket Club, when you look at them on paper. I just think we didn’t let them play.
“Our mindset was defensively to keep working, we can score tries but we have to work hard on defence and I think today we did that.
“We did a bit of homework during the week and we knew that if we could keep hold of the ball and build on those phases we would be okay. It was not perfect by any means but it’s a lot better going into a little bit of a break.”
Scottish exploded out of the blocks to take a 31-0 lead thanks to two tries to Conor Hartley and singles to Josh Dowsing, Kane Boucautand Ben Tyler.
Tyler was in on the act again soon after as Scottish built their lead, while Jack Parfitt, Shae Turner, Ashton Hyde and Harris Grant all found the line in the second half.
“We’ve had a big week, to be 28-10 up at half-time last week and lose [against Tigers], the boys needed a bit of a redirection this week and I think they took a lot on themselves, which is really good from a coaching side of things,” Hammond said.
“It was a lot more player led and I think it showed out there today. It was good to see at half-time the mentality that it was nil-nil and we start again.”
Jack Delaforce, Seb Brien and Gair Currie were the try scorers for HKCC but it was little consolation for coach Brett Wilkinson.
“It’s pretty disappointing, we missed tackles and at crucial times we made crucial mistakes,” he said.
“We’ll have to come up with an answer pretty quick. We’ve got two weeks off so we will look to work hard and fix the things that we made mistakes on. It just wasn’t good enough today.”
Football Club were forced to work extra hard for their victory after a torrid first half saw them trailing 9-7 at the break.
Fullback Michael Hanning banged over all of Kowloon’s first-half points from the tee, while his counterpart Glyn Hughes converted his own try to get HKFC on the scoreboard.
HKFC hit the lead early in the second half through a try to Jamie Hood before Scott Sneddon brought ‘Loon back level with a penalty.
It was a try to winger Jamie Lauder in the 65th minute that broke the deadlock and ensured HKFC returned to the winner’s list.
Thursday night’s game was a see-sawing affair, with Tigers jumping out of the blocks to build a commanding 15-0 lead by the break.
After fly half Robbie Keith got things underway for the visitors with a successful penalty attempt in the opening minutes, scrum half Josh Walden found the try line to make it 8-0 after the first quarter.
No 8 Josh Hrstich got in on the action on 22 minutes and Keith converted to ensure his side had all the momentum.
But it was a rejuvenated Valley side that emerged after the break and, as they so often do, they hit back with a vengeance, with back-rower Thomas Lamboley crossing in the second minute of the second half to breath life into the match.
Ben Rimene then went to work from the tee, first landing the conversion and then slotting a penalty to bring it back to 15-10 on 50 minutes.
But the Tigers settled and eventually pulled away, with a try to winger SalomYiuKam-shing and a further eight points from the boot of Keith sealing the deal.
In Saturday’s action in the Old Mutual International Championship, University Wizards saw off Disciplined Services 52-0 to retain the Old Mutual International Championship Challenge Cup for a fourth week and hold on to second place in the league, behind Vistra Typhoons. Next week, Discovery Bay Pirates take on the Wizards, in their second shot at this season’s new trophy.
Comments on RugbyPass
Forget the 85kg bit, that can become something else. However I do like the one off test on ANZAC day idea. SR plays Fri/ Sat, test players travel Sunday and the squads have the full week together before playing Saturday. Rest of SR has a week off. Either involve women's teams in same location or in the other country and rotate annually. Herbert is right in that change is needed.
3 Go to commentsI’ve read loads of nonsense before but this article takes the cake. Or perhaps someone changed the date for April Fool's Day.
3 Go to commentsReally Rugbypass? Ben Smith I think you forgot what the Springboks did to the All Blacks at Twickenham 8 weeks earlier? Springboks 35 All Blacks 7. There is alot of ifs and buts in your article. The All Blacks threw the sink at the Springboks and unfortunately they were not good enough regardless if they played with 14 men or not. It was the Springboks who forced the All Blacks to make mistakes! Sorry but not Sorry the Springboks is the best ever Rugby World Cup Nation in the world. 4 Cups baby!
164 Go to commentsYou just backed the Boks with that fantastic review! Well done! Have some cake!
164 Go to commentsBen Smith please write up something better than this. The Springboks would have won the world cup if you were 15 men on the field. They would have found a way, they always find a way to beat the All Blacks.
164 Go to commentsWow, there is a lot of “could have” and “ should have” in this waist of time dribble. I love the deportation in this story to search for a glimpse at a silver lining. Here are the facts, NZ was a badly coached and undisciplined shadow of their former glory. They never took the lead in a game they were never going to win.
164 Go to commentsGOTTA MAKE ‘THE GEORGE’ HAPPEN!!!! That’s a great idea! A trans Tasman midget battle on ANZAC Day. I don’t think the ABs Wallabies game should be a one off winner takes all though, just the first match with the other two later in the year with the RC. Reason being, no one will ever shut up about how aussies couldn’t win it when it was a 3 match series.
3 Go to comments@Ben smith. Thats knock out rugby. So honeslty who cares?
164 Go to commentsIt will interesting to know which Irish players said that…
1 Go to commentsNaaaww boys will be boys! Now run along ya wee scamp! Don’t let us catch you at again😏
1 Go to commentsGreat to have Ethan Blackadder back in the Crusaders in the last few weeks. One of the best all round loose forwards around. He played so well last week against the Rebels. Fantastic attitude Ethan has and his comments are spot on.
2 Go to commentsThe author is 100% right. The Springboks know that they don't have near the natural attraction, mana, skill and mystic the All Blacks have. So, Chasing the sun 1 & 2 was concocted to overblow the Boks image on the back of a corruptly obtained “win". It's marketing ploy to force the Boks delusion as the World's Best. I guess World Rugby is also not to be believed when it came out with an apology about how the final was officiated. And if the 2023 final such a superb game by the Boks, then the Boks crying about Referee Bryce Lawrence for decades is also deserves a laugh. Chase the sun and get burned like a moth. A very well written literary piece that tore the Boks and Chasing the sun farce to shreds. 🖤All Blacks🏉
164 Go to commentsI’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
164 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to commentsWhat ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
164 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
164 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
164 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
164 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
164 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
164 Go to comments