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