Coverage of the Weekend's Games

Rusty Club show their mettle
Alvin Sallay
12 October 2008
South China Morning Post

The rust was plain to see, but CBRE Hong Kong Football Club had enough savvy to polish off disappointing opponents Tradition Valley in the First Division knockout cup yesterday, winning 21-3.
Tries from No 8 Rupert Clarke and winger Adam Raby plus the boot of centre Jamie Hood, who knocked over a conversion and three penalties, gave Football Club the perfect start as they bid to defend their League and Grand Championship titles, plus add this extra "knockout cup" to their booty.
"We will take this win. It will set the tone for the rest of the season, and it will be a long one," said Football Club coach Quinton Wrigley. "Considering that we lost all our games at the Valley 15s, it is nice to start the season proper with a win."
Valley will be happy that their first outing does not have any bearing on the League. Left with a three-week period after changing the League from three rounds to two this season, the union decided to play this new knockout cup so all six teams could fine-tune their games before the league starts on November 8.
Valley can certainly do with some tweaking to their game as yesterday's error-ridden performance proved, with butter-fingered handling costing them a few scoring opportunities.
"I hope this is a case of early season rust for us," said Valley coach Brian Higgins. "But thankfully these first three weeks will allow us the chance to identify our problem areas. We are not down in the dumps."
The game was niggly as both teams tried to make an early statement, forcing the referee to reach for his yellow card on three occasions - twice to Football Club and once for Valley.
Having traded penalties, Club's impressive forwards broke the impasse midway through the first half when from a lineout close in, they rumbled over, resulting in Clarke scoring the first try. Hood converted to make it 10-3.
Two more penalties from Hood sealed victory for Club who will now move into the semi-finals next week, along with the winners of the other two games and the best loser.
At So Kon Po, DeA Tigers defeated Manulife Causeway Bay Rams 31-5, while Synovate HKCC beat InProjects Kowloon 35-10.

From Murray Sargant:

Congratulations guys on a hard fought victory against a very strong Knights team. Without a doubt that was the hardest victory Marc and I have witnessed in our time with Drags and the whole team had to dig deep to keep Valley from scoring in the last 20 minutes. a real nail biter. On the positive side our lineout's worked well with some excellent jumping from Alex Charter, Graham Fleming and Ollie Jones and accurate throwing from Alisdair and Pete. Also our scrum managed at least three tight heads which could have been more had Pat the referee not objected to us pushing Valley around the park. Well done to the front row particularly Ian, Richard and Yutaka for some strong scumaging. In fact the referee at times should have been wearing a Valley shirt given his constant award of penalties and inability to see what was going on off the ball and with Valley not binding on to their reversing scrum. Also he ! managed to allow fulltime to run 6 minutes over giving Valley more than enough chances and yet we managed to keep them out. Our pre season fitness really was put to the test and our spirit in defense was impressive to witness. Our backline also had a good day although we were unlucky not to run in a few more tries particularly in the first half. Some strong running from Shane and Pat always kept Valley on the back foot particularly in the first 40 minutes. The only time Valley broke our line was through an intercept which was against the run of play. Other than this momentary lapse Valley never really troubled our defense and we kept tackling all afternoon which was impressive given how hot it was. Marcus and Marc have nominated Ian Ridgway our inaugural man of the match and in typical drags tradition he will be awarded the Steve Spiers cup next weekend. For those not aware Steve lost his life in Bali and once the cup is in! the hand of the best and fairest player each weekend the cup can not be emptied and who ever is handed the cup must see away the contents. Congratulations to Ian on his debut game for Drags and on a great game. Also a great fun night Saturday at the Captains Dinner although Sunday was a little slow in the Sargant house hold. Thanks Marc for suggesting Wanchai at 2am.