Valley and Tigers top table in Old Mutual Hong Kong Premiership
Societe Generale Valley proved too strong for Kowloon in the match of the round in the Old Mutual International Men’s Premiership on Saturday, leading throughout to win 27-12.The round’s other matches saw the Borelli Walsh USRC Tigers notch a come-from-behind 27-21 win over Herbert Smith Freehills HKCC, while Natixis HKFC blanked Bloomberg HK Scottish 35-0.
It was a trio of internationals that got Valley off to the perfect start, with fly half Ben Rimene slotting a penalty before inside centre Matt Rosslee and front rower Ben Higgins found the try line.Rimene converted the second of those efforts to give his side a 15-0 lead after 29 minutes at Happy Valley.
Ben Madgwick found the line just before half-time to give Kowloon a much-needed boost going into the break, with Jack Neville slotting the extras to make it 15-7.
But it was all one-way traffic after the break, with No 8 Thomas Lamboley and prop Taukiha’amea Koloamatangi piling on tries of their own as the score ballooned to 27-7 early in the second half.
Speedster Fong Kit-fung conjured a consolation try for Kowloon late in the match but that couldn’t stop Valley regaining a share of top spot with Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers.
“It was a tough old game, we were delighted to get the win,” Valley coach Andrew Kelly said. “We really only had one day preparation with the guys being away and then having a few days off after the internationals. It was great to have them back, Ben Rimene wasn’t selected so in a way it was good for us because he was fresh to play.
“I think we had dominance in the set piece area because they had a few of their front rowers out. We made that dominance tell and we managed to convert that pressure into points.
“They’re a good team and they move the ball around really well but we just squeezed them out in the end. I think when they have got all their team together they are a very dangerous side and we were just fortunate they had a few of their main guys out.”
Kelly praised the even effort of his side but did highlight a number of individual efforts.
“One of the good performances was Hugo Chui on the wing, he’s a young fella who has joined us this year and has been excellent,” Kelly said.
“Our forwards were great again in the scrum and the line-out. Ben Higgins, Dayne Jans, big Martin [Muller] our captain, they were great and our back row was getting around the pitch as well.”
Tigers were forced to dig deep into their bag of tricks to get out of jail against HKCC at King’s Park after trailing for the first hour of the match and only hitting the front with 10 minutes to go.
The Cricketers had their opponents on the hop early and forced a number of mistakes, with scrum half Jack Metters slotting the first nine points of the match from the tee.
Tigers’ fly half Michael Harman also slotted three penalties of his own in the opening half, but it was a try to HKCC winger Seb Brien that ensured his side had a 14-9 lead at the break.
HKCC extended their lead 12 minutes into the second half when opposite winger Owen Pescod also found the line and at 21-9 they were very much looking the winners.
It took skipper Josh Hrstich to ignite the Tigers, with the No 8’s 58th-minute try sparking a run of 18 unanswered points.
Outside centre Braam Gerber also got in on the act with a touch down of his own to level the scores, while Liam Gallaher was on target with two late penalties to seal the deal.
After thumping HKCC 68-17 in their last outing, the tables were turned on Bloomberg HK Scottish as HKFC ran amok at Football Club. Fullback Glyn Hughes notched 15 points and winger Josh Birch added a brace of tries as Club blanked Scottish 33-0 in the first whitewash of the Premiership season.
Club led 20-0 at the break after captain Mitch Andrews and winger Liam Herbert added tries to Hughes’ two penalties and two conversions in the opening stanza.The match devolved into a messy affair with Scottish losing captain Josh Dowsing to a red card mid-way through the second half, while Football Club fly-half Nate De Thierry was shown a yellow card moments later. Birch made short-handed Scottish suffer with two tries in the final six minutes to bring the total to 35-0 and keep HKFC within range of co-leaders Tigers and Valley at the top of the table.
Comments on RugbyPass
Who's Jarrad Hohepa?
1 Go to commentsSo let me get this straight. Say you have the dominant scrum. You are 99% sure you can go for a scrum pushover try on the line to win the game. The opposition knows it too. They give away a silly tap kick instead. You are now not allowed to scrum. This is ridiculous! *%@ing the game up as usual! The fact that the attacking teams are not allowed to scrum from a held up over the line is just as ridiculous. Really world rugby? Careful people might start a rebel league called True Rugby or Real Rugby.
72 Go to comments12 subs during a game? How has that been allowed to happen NB? I hate when the game goes in this monopolistic direction closing up shop, it just becomes non sport. Btw have you seen anything of how Liam Coltman was tracking for Lyon? He has just signed to return to Otago though we have a couple of young hookers developing here. He was a popular gentle natured character down here and I’m glad to see him back but maybe he will be a mentor primarily?
4 Go to commentsGreat breakdown and the global politics always confuses me a little. The southern hemisphere seems to be left out a bit but I wouldn’t even know where to start with fixing it. Club challenge could be a step in the right direction
4 Go to commentsSince he coached Free state, from that time onwards, I maintained he was the coach for the Boks. A nice, no nonsense guy with an excellent brain, who gets results.
11 Go to commentswell - they only played against 14 men and had the TMO team on their side - and still should have lost… so actually that makes sense.
32 Go to commentsSouthern hemisphere Rugby is exactly that, boring. Northern Hemisphere Rugby is soooo much more entertaining and better with better players.
2 Go to commentsIf he was to be cited for a dangerous behavior, then it’s natural that he should be. Then NTamack too, yes? And I’ll add a good whataboutism - Yeandle eye-gouging on Richie Arnold: not cited. Eye-gouging. Not high tackle. Eye-gouging. It was on French TV, with French TV directors.
5 Go to commentsReally poorly written rambling piece ..
4 Go to commentsIt was so boring
2 Go to commentspersonally I’d go with : 1. France 2. NZ 3. England 4. Ireland 5. Scotland
32 Go to commentsAndy everything becomes easier with experience therefor counting etc straight after a match becomes easier when you have 100+ caps vs 17 which is the experience you speak from.
160 Go to commentsGetting rid of the Dupont Law is a good thing and ought to have been done months ago! Officially getting rid of the croc roll is a good thing. The law about no scrums from a short arm is well intended in terms of speeding the game up but it’s an overreaction to a clever yet calculated gamble that could have blow up in South Africa’s face if they conceded a penalty from the scrum that was set after Willemse took claimed the mark in the World Cup QF.
72 Go to commentsRassie The GOAT
11 Go to commentsOf their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
32 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
11 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
11 Go to commentsTerrible conditions for young players to express themselves just enjoy it guys. As a saffa great to see Ausie youth looking good. Wow SA have some great talent also.
2 Go to commentsYes, another example of French tv directors ensuring that incidents like this are swiftly glossed over for the benefit of their teams…
5 Go to commentsThe prospect of the club match ups across hemispheres is surely appetising for everyone. The reality however, may prove to be slightly different. There are currently two significant driving forces that have delivered to same teams consistently to the latter champions cup stages for years now. The first of those is the yawning gap in finances, albeit delivered by different routes. In France it’s wealthy private owners operating with a higher salary cap by some distance compared to England. In Ireland it’s led by a combination of state tax relief support, private Leinster academy funding and IRFU control - the provincial budgets are not equal! This picture is not going to change anytime soon. The second factor is the EPCR competition rules. You don’t need a PhD. in advanced statistical analysis from oxbridge to see the massive advantage bestowed upon the home team through every ko round of the tournament. The SA teams will gain the opportunity for home ko ties in due course but that could actually polarise the issue even further, just look at their difficulties playing these ties in Europe and then reverse them for the opposition travelling to SA. Other than that, the picture here is unlikely to change either, with heavyweight vested interests controlling the agenda. So what does all this point to for the club world championship? Well the financial differential between the nh and sh teams is pretty clear. And the travel issues and sporting challenge for away teams are significantly exacerbated beyond those already seen in the EPCR tournaments. So while the prospect of those match ups may whet our rugby appetites, I’m very much still to be convinced the reality will live up to expectations…
4 Go to comments