Drag's Finest Hour

From our own Murray Sargant

Drags - What A Great Result

The seasons concluding game confirmed once for all that Drag's are one of the most improved teams this year in the Club. It was always going to be a huge step up for Drags to take on the might of Kowloon a solid 1st Division team with more than a few professional players.

The fact is beating Causeway Bay the week before was a great effort in it self but to now face the might of Kowloon who have in previous years been the Division 1 finalist and Champions was always a big step up.

Right from the training run Thursday to our pre game briefing everyone seemed clear with the enormity of the task ahead and the entire squad was focused well. During the pre game briefing we all had a quick chat about the season and the tactics we would be deploying to combat or much fancied opponents. We also issued the latest addition to the club kit bag our new Drags socks specifically custom ordered for the final. Sorry for the Welsh Dragon but we do have to remember were the coach comes from. He for one was more than happy with the design. If any others who didn't play Saturday but want a pair of these one off team socks please let me know. They are now of course mandatory for all Drags games moving forward.

The game itself was a huge physical match up with some of the largest centers in Hong Kong rugby lining up against Robin and Tim. The forwards from Kowloon also had there fair share of bulk and at times you would have thought we were playing Samoa rather than the Loon.

As it turned out it was one of the most hard fought battles the Club faithful had seen for many years with Drags never stepping back and to a man making sure every tackle counted, even if the net result was we only slowed the big islander's down. Drags actually looked the more composed team right from the opening whistle. Great pre game prep from Marc and locker room rev up from Ramsey. The resulting start was our best of the season. From the opening kick off we spun the ball wide and came with in meters of scoring right from the get go. Defense was the name of the game and the entire team kept the chain unbroken the entire first half. Suffice to say this was not going to be a straight forward walk over.

The Drags scrum lead strongly from the front by Khan, Sheren and Babis made sure we had a stable platform for our own feeds and equally made sure the Kowloon scrum was always under pressure. A couple of excellent turn over balls resulted and the Drags pack looked to dominate the larger but not superior Kowloon tight five. The starting Drags second row combination or Hewitson and Jones also kept the pressure on and made a number of great tackles in the first half to bring the big guys down all over the park. As for the backrow of Neill, Guy and Wally it was going to be a very busy day and the lads didn't disappoint with all of them working hard and Guy in particular pulling off a man of the match performance as the worthy winner of our Steve Spires cup in only his second start for Drags. Congratulations to Guy. The forwards dominated the scrums and challenged well in the line outs making sure we gained much valuable procession and most importantly keeping the ball out of the hands of the much larger and aggressive Kowloon backline.

In the backs Captain Phil was as always working hard tackling every large islander like his life depended on it. Junior and Robin also combined well particularly in defense. Robin in particular had a huge game and kept in the Kowloon attackers face all day. Pre match Phil had mentioned that we needed to swarm like bee's in defense and Robin took the lead in making that a reality, pulling off some great tackles and also effecting a a couple of turn over balls at critical times. On the outside Tim had a strong game and since every tackle required a team effort Robin and Tim worked well in combination bringing the big guys down or at the very least slowing them down so the rest of the team could finish off the job. The back three of Callum, Raby and Ed were also busy and Raby did a great job with the boot and converted the only points in the first half heading to the break at 3-3. The tension in the air was intense.

The game in the second half continued with same hard hitting runs from from Kowloon centres but clearly they were getting tired and our constant in your face defense resulted in them getting increasingly frustrated. The more they kept trying to swat us out of the way the more the Drags boys kept coming back at them.

At this point Marc started to deploy our super subs bench with Dinks coming on in the front row, Peyton and Steve Mathews into the 2nd row and Gallagher replacing Wally at No 8 with Grewers replacing Phil at scrumhalf. The timing of the replacements came just at the right time and Drags managed to change up a gear when Kowloon frankly had run out of idea’s. At this point the red mist descended and the Loon open side flanker started throwing punches at what has to be said was a cheeky pat on the head from Dinks thanking the opposition back row for being offside in the ruck for about the fourth occasion. The resulting penalty for Drags relived the pressure and also resulted in the Kowloon player being given a red card.

Kowloon now down to 14 men really now started to look desperate. Rather than Drags taking the foot off the pedal Marc made the final substitution of the game and bought Dave Tibbott off the bench. The resulting hard runs and crash balls added further to the misery that the Loon were feeling and Drags placed ever increasing pressure looking for a final try to seal the victory. Kowloon in frustration eventually made another cynical mistake with hands in the ruck and it was a penalty to Drags right in front of the posts. Raby calmly slotted the final points and it was a historic victory for Drags. 9 – 3 and confirmed us as 2008 Knock Out Cup Champions over our much fancied opponents.

Thanks also to Bouch and Shoey who supported the team well but didn’t manage to get onto the paddock for the final game.

Sorry for making this an epic tale but it was by all accounts our greatest game of the season and to miss anyone out would have been wrong. A huge thank you to Marc for pre game talks and for coaching us all season. Also to Ramsey who was always passionately supporting the team both on and off the field.

Congratulations to everyone who played Drags this year and contributed to such a great season. The leading try scorer was Callum Nieto with six tries but with more than 22 different try scorers during the season the whole team deserves a huge pat on the back for a job well done.

Regards
Murray Sargant
Manager Drags

Calling Time with the Captain

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Australians

It may have occurred to you (as it has to one whingeing old git who will not be named here) that the Blog has been a little quiet lately. Guilty. And it's not as if there has been nothing to write about: Club have wrapped up their season with a magnificent win over HKCC to win the Cup as well as the league, and Drags replicated that performance with an utterly defiant showing against Kowloon's Division One team. I will post Murray "Inimitable" Sargant's comments on Dragons' finest hour shortly. My only excuse is that I have been busier than Stobart lately, and we all know he is the world's busiest man.

El Capitano, Tony George has kindly contributed some reflections on this season of marvels for HKFC, below. Hope you enjoy them. After posting Murray's write-up (a mere fortnight late), I will be sending the Blog into hibernation for the summer. May I say that it has been a pleasure to be your Blogger this season and that I have really appreciated not only the compliments that you have favoured the Blog with, but also the complaints. When you are summoned to Sequins corner on matchday to debate the heaviest ever Club front row, you know you're making an impact...

Bring on victory in 2008-09!

Have a great summer.
Harps


From Tony George, Club Captain

So, Harps has asked me to indulge his fabulous blog with some personal reflections on the season. I’ll endeavour to oblige, so long as you’ll forgive the slightly scattergun approach…

The Captain’s Dinner. I have to admit to having been slightly nervous about this, my first as skipper. I also really, really don’t like public speaking. I shouldn’t have worried – not only were the audience very kind, they weren’t listening, so it was all OK. In all seriousness, this was a top night and it was great to see players from throughout the Club mixing and chundering together. And, even if I say so myself, my heave over the VIP table was a special moment.

Atmosphere. I dunno about you, but I found this year to be much more welcoming and inclusive. I still don’t think we’re quite where I’d like us to be, but that just makes next year even more exciting.

Guangzhou. On a personal note, this season was my first trip up to take on the PLA. Ok, so the pitch is awful, the facilities are, well, there are no facilities bar the Golden Arches, but the train trip back makes up for everything. In time honoured fashion, the streakers shall remain nameless; suffice to say that man bags will always make me think of rice wine…

Winning. Which we seem to have managed a lot of. I’ll spare you the list. Actually, no I bloody well won’t: Bulls won the Kowloon X’s, Club and Drags both did the double, Select won the third, the GAIce won everything and the U14s were bloody fabulous.

Fine sessions. See above. The one before Miss Kowloon may have been a little over the top. Some may even say that it contributed to the eventual fate of poor old Miss Conversion. I don’t know, as I can’t remember – yet another get home at 6am clutching three Sausage & Egg McMuffins and a Fillet O Fish kind of a night.

Q smiling. Well, he had to in the end. Didn’t you see Hobler’s attempted chip in the Final?

Dodgeball. Same again next year?

Drop goals. They became a fixation for a while, Stobart nailing one from dead in front of the posts with a 13 man overlap outside him. And then the Firsts caught the bug, with some just silly ones in the last few games. I suppose, when you’re winning, even Scots think they’re Jonny…

Beating Valley. We managed that a lot this year, and the three times in Div 1 were fun. Apparently they think we’re Scum. Bless. We just think they’re not all that good. Better luck next year.

The really personal. I turned 30 (yes it was a tough paper round) got married and started as Section skipper in the space of a month. Must learn to spread things out more in future.

The highlight. Had to really struggle to come up with one defining moment of a season that contained so many special moments, but the display the Drags put on in the Knockout Final against Kowloon was truly exceptional. They swarmed everything, ran everywhere and really put bodies on the line. Superb win.

And with that, just a few thanks for the season. Big thanks to the committee (you know who you are), ably led by the little Irish fella, who do much more behind the scenes than anybody realises. The Coaches and Managers have also been tireless in generally getting stuff done, and the Season’s triumphs wouldn’t have happened without them. finally, of course, the players – it’s all about you, after all.

Meet the Old Boys...again...it's Animal!

This time it's the mighty Animal: rugby leaguer, Hong Kong copper and Sequins stalwart. Animal has done his "generation" proud by maintaining and even exceeding the (high) level of wit we have come to expect from these addled old duffers. Thanks again to Broony - Our Man in the Corner.

Name : Animal, however, as the wife does not like being called ‘Missus Animal’ I sometimes use an alias of Dave Slater.

Age : Having previously been mistaken for my father’s brother, my mother’s husband and my niece’s grandfather I can proudly state that I am only 48; but very happy that I am now starting to ‘age my look’.

Year retired : This year. But still available for tours as a War Correspondent.

Occupation : One of Asia’s Funniest (sorry, Finest), therefore semi retired.

Nationality : Yorkshireman

Rugby Position : Futility player, played them all equally badly. When given a choice, Centre or No 8.

Years at Club : 8

Previous Rugby Clubs : Todmorden (small tribal compound in the Pennines) Amateur Rugby League Club, Rochdale Hornets Colts, Royal Hong Kong Police and Hong Kong Police.

Favourite thing about HK Rugby : Tours and beers with mates, which results in scaring the bejasus out of Fordo by sleeping naked and snoring like an enraged Grizzly. Sorry, my mistake, apparently the overall hair colour is more akin to a Polar bear.

Current favourite Club player and why : All the ladies playing for Ice, they scare me !

Most embarrassing spectating rugby experience : Sitting in the changing room (cowshed) at Todmorden whilst my fellow Under 16’s recorded their only loss of the season. I was a tad under the weather having drunk a bottle of scotch the night before. On a positive note, I no longer drink scotch by the bottle !

Wanchai or Manila ? That’s an easy choice…….Bangkok.

Sequins Corner or the Sportsmans ? The Corner waiting for Woots to get slapped one day; and anyway, the Sportsmans does takeaways and delivers.

HKFC 10s or HKRFU 7s ? I didn’t realise they were separate events and have never been able to differentiate between the finish of one and start of the other.

Drinks with Woots or shopping with the wife ? The former, it’s less likely to end in divorce.

Marilyn Monroe or Sophia Loren ? Sorry, they are a bit before my time. I’d love to have a ‘Monster’s Ball' with Halle Berry though.

Drags reach Knockout Cup Final

From the inimitable Murray Sargant...

VICTORY FOR DRAGS 18 CWB 15. What can be said it was a hard fought last minute win and the sort of game you expect when Causeway Bay who needed a win to salvage some pride from a disappointing season came up against a confident Drags team having just won the 2nd Division title. Right from the opening kick off we new it was going to be a long afternoon. Semi was in impactful form and the CWB game plan seemed fairly clear. Give it to Semi and kick deep into Drags half. Drags to their credit weathered the opening 10 min and replied in emphatic form with a length of the field try that started on our own 22 and went through 7 pairs of hands before finally Callum ran over to score in the corner. Drags up by 5. CWB didn't lie down and they soon came back with a couple of penalties to keep them in the game. The game then became a hard fought mid field tussle with no one wanting to back down. We entered the second half leading by just a few points. This was short-lived as CWB pounced on a loose ball and ran in a try, it had to be said against the run of play. Never the less Drags now found themselves behind for the first time in the game. Full credit to the lads who remained positive and pushed hard to get back down the CWB end of the field. This was proving a great challenge as CWB continued to apply pressure and the penalty count against Drags was mounting as the ref forgot to call ruck and let CWB dive into every ruck off their feet. Thing's didn't look good for Drags with CWB applying all the pressure when from turnover ball in the line out Carny flicked a ball out the back of a ruck to young Adam Raby standing on his own 22 meter line. Raby then dodged and weaved to the halfway line before chipping over the entire CWB pack and re gathering and setting off for a great sprint down the far touchline scoring under the posts. Drags went wild as the try put us three points clear of CWB with 5 min to play. Drags 15 CWB 12. One last twist however kept us fighting till the very end. CWB came back at us and sure enough Drags were penalised yet again on our own 10 meter line right in front. Back came CWB to level the scores with 3 min to play. Drags 15, CWB 15. The final phase of the game was all Drags. The never say never attitude really shone through and the pressure on the CWB defense intensified. Drags looked to be on the brink of scoring and with a final push Carny our creative prop chipped over the top. Would have been a huge fine under normal circumstances but he did manage to roll the CWB player over to our side of the ensuing ruck which resulted in a penalty to Drags right in front. Raby cool as you like slotted the penalty and in doing so booked Drags into the final of the Knockout Cup for Division 2. Well done and congratulations for a great game.

No more worlds to conquer?

Short and Sweet Message from Tony George, Club Captain

Select managed to clinch the Third Division on Saturday. They beat Police 37-10, securing the bonus point necessary to put Valley Mustangs under pressure. Sure enough, they couldn't manage enough points against Kowloon Pussies, so Select take the title on points difference.

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So that's it then (this is Harps again, by the way, although you had surely already noticed the improvement in style). HKFC completes what is believed to be an unprecedented clean sweep of Divisions One, Two and Three. As our esteemed Captain pointed out, his first season at the helm "could have gone worse." Now that it's happened, there is a certain sense of inevitability about this tremendous achievement - it now seems that anything less would simply have been disappointing. And, of course, in a sense, it would have been. HKFC has been blessed this year with a large pool of committed, talented players across all divisions: if we had not brought that strength to bear, we could justifiably regarded it as a failure.

I think that's the burden of "big" teams everywhere, whether that means the All Blacks on the international stage, or the club with the best player resources and facilities in an amateur league. And we've seen how the expectation cripples the ABs when it matters, and how all of their talent, all of their resources and all of the support they have from a rugby-mad nation is not quite enough when they are confronted by, if I may, more committed, more cohesive teams in knockout situations.

I'm not here to knock the ABs (although it does have its pleasures), but - on a much more modest scale - Club have often been victims of a similar dynamic in the past. As the team with the biggest player group, the best facilities and the highest expectation levels, they have been outfaced by teams from smaller clubs playing with more hunger, more togetherness and the enormous motivation of beating The Establishment. Not so any more. Club have taken the enormous step forward of combining their historic strengths with a new intensity and drive. The coaching staff and all the players can take enormous credit for that, and the rest of Hong Kong rugby should be afraid.

In a fever of excitement, the great darts commentator Sid Waddell once said of the-then young darts champion Eric Bristow: "When Alexander of Macedonia was 33 he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer - Bristow is only 27." Like Bristow at that time, a mainly young Club team have carried all before them in Hong Kong. So what next?

Well, first and foremost, there is a knockout cup final to be played against HKCC at King's Park on Saturday. There is a point to prove here: HKCC have beaten Club 2-1 in three matches this season, although one of Aberdeen's victories was later overturned because of an improperly registered player. Club have an opportunity to (i) set the record straight against HKCC and (ii) wrap up the knockout cup in addition to the league championship. And this should not be missed.

In the long term, it will be critical that Club does not sit back and bask in the reflected glory of 2007-08 for more than a few weeks. Otherwise they risk falling into the trap that claimed England after they won the RWC in 2003. Great teams do not win one-off championships - they dominate for a generation, or a generation's sporting equivalent.

The season is not over for Dragons either: they must face Division One side Causeway Bay on Saturday. It is unquestionably within Drags' power to beat CWB, who struggled badly in Division One this season, and go on to a "glory" final against Kowloon (providing they beat PLA). The structure of this knockout competition makes it a hiding to nothing for the teams from the higher division: win and no-one is impressed; lose and it's embarrassing. But for the teams playing up, it's a real chance to make a point. Drags can do this, and argue their Division One credentials to the powers that be.

All the best for now
Harps