Friday, February 29, 2008

Club Sweep All Before Them


By now you surely already know that Club have finished the season on a high, sweeping aside DEA Tigers (22-7 two weeks ago) and Kowloon (25-3 last weekend) to claim the Division One champion's crown by some distance. The picture above captures the early stages of Club's celebrations after their convincing victory over a physical but somewhat one-dimensional Kowloon side in the pouring rain at HKFC. Dragons are also Division Two champs after dispatching Scorps 57-7 two weeks ago. Furthermore, Select still have the chance to complete a treble for HKFC by winning Division Three. Club and Drags also have the chance to claim further silverware in their respective knock-out competitions beginning next weekend, in which Drags will be matched up with Division One sides Causeway Bay and Kowloon.
HKFC set out to win Divisions One, Two and Three, knowing we had the players and the talent, but also realising we would - especially in Division One - have to find a much greater degree of cohesiveness and, above all, mental toughness. Club demonstrated these qualities in spades, pulling off some real landmarks (principally beating Valley on three consecutive occasions) on their way to a richly deserved championship. They also bounced back from a second (and this time legitimate) defeat at the hands of Abderdeen to finish the season playing some of their best rugby yet. Coach Quinton Wrigley has been nothing if not single-minded in his focus on victory this season, but his dedication and ruthlessness in pursuing his goals, well, maybe we could call it pragmatism, have certainly paid off. Everyone at HKFC should salute him for delivering.
Various players to come into the Club squad this season have clearly made a tremendous difference. The paradigm of consistency, Tim Edgar, has completed a remarkable but entirely deserved rise from Bulls to Club, via Scorps, and now finds himself in the probably unexpected position of being the side's main line-out jumper. The arrival of the McKee brothers, Kris Marin and Pat Foreman, as well as the emergence of James Kibble as an outside half and Angus Washington as a Club player, have been critical. Club also needed their core of established players from previous seasons to be consistent, and they did not disappoint. Pete Spizzirri, Tom Cameron and Nigel Hobler were clearly the outstanding front row in the division, Nigel D'Acre was as classy as ever, Richard Rouse was typically direct and uncompromising in carrying the ball and the wingers Andrew Chambers and Dan Parr are lethal finishers. I even saw Dan go into a ruck the other day...
It's probably fair to say that Club have depended at critical times on players stepping up from a very high quality Drags squad this season. Players like Cowhead, Callum Nieto, Jared Smith, Rupert "Churchy" Clark and Chris Howard have all relished the opportunity to play up and will continue to exert healthy pressure on the first teamers. Many of these excellent players, plus blokes like Steve Matthew, are really caught between two teams. This is a tough situation for them but a very positive one for the Club as a whole: it means Club have a big pool of highly competent, theoretically match-fit players to draw on when needed. And the influx of players to, and competition for places in, the Club side has meant Drags have been able to field a team of near-first grade quality at many times.
Drags themselves had an exceptional season, although many will sadly remember the narrow 17-12 loss to the PLA in Guangzhou more than the team's long unbroken string of victories. Ever-knackered-looking Ramsay Carter and evergreen Phil Reid's boys will probably have another chance to go for the perfect season next year and avenge that defeat in China. However, it Drags were to win the knockout cup, then some people might begin to believe they deserve another crack at Division One...
So let's press on, have Club and Drags win their knockouts and see Select home as champs too.
In the meantime...from the most recent Club v DEA game...
For your viewing pleasure:
All the best
Harps




Posted by Adam Harper at 11:35 AM

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