Back to Business - A Look Ahead at Saturday

Morning all

Trust you enjoyed the Bledislioe Cup weekend. Not a classic by any means but it was great to be there as rugby geopolitics shifted. I understand that Zinzan Brooke confirmed Kiwi rugby players' reputation for fine public speaking at the Brunch beforehand. It's hard to imagine that he could have been any worse than former Wallaby prop Dan Crowley, who embarked on the Mother of all Rambles at the Sevens Long Lunch - but apparently he was. Crowley is said to work as a motivational speaker these days (specialising in motivating people to fall asleep perhaps?) so there is clearly still hope for the audacious All Black drop-goaler of 1995. Now that I have insulted Australia and New Zealand equally, I feel we can move on. And please understand I wouldn't dream of saying any of this to either of their faces...

In other news, I can reveal that Club Chairman Donough Foley and Captain Tony George have sent their congratulations to US President-elect Barack Obama during a private phone call minutes after Obama's victory had been confirmed. "I told Barack he had the full support of the HKFC rugby section," said Foley. "And I invited him to come for a pint in the Chairman's next time he's over. He's got great potential but he's so young. I told him I would get Woots and Don Rider together and that we could give him a bit of a tutorial on leadership."

It also emerged last night that Ben Stobart's long absence from sight at HKFC was due to him having accepting a last-minute request from the Obama team to persuade undecided voters to cast a ballot in their candidate's favour by talking until they agreed. "It wasn't the way we would like to have done it, but the end justified these extreme means," said an Obama aide.

On to this weekend's fixtures. Club take on Causeway Bay in what should be one of the more straightforward contests in Dvision One. With so many quality players at his disposal, selection will no doubt present a few dilemmas. While Club will look to get into form against CWB, the real highlight of this weekend should be the Dragons v Scorpions clash at 3pm. For those new to the club, derbies like this are always fiery encounters. Some say they waste our energy by turning it inwards. I would say that matches like these are the reason why we play rugby and that the competition we foster internally makes us tougher competitors externally.

However you see this perennial question, though, any notion that the partisanship and individual team spirit of the different teams could be abolished along with their names will surely be shot down once again on Saturday. Drags and Scorps have experienced contrasting starts to their seasons, but the fierce pride felt by each team in a game like this has always been a great equalizer, making club derbies closer games than league table positions would suggest. There is always a personal element to these clashes as well: players in both teams want to prove a point against the man who is selected above or below them. It's a little Darwinian, I grant you, but it makes for cracking games of rugby.

My bet is that Saturday will be a tense encounter, with plenty of physical confrontation. I would expect Scorps to come out firing and try to rattle Drags in the first 20 with some very direct rugby. But I believe Drags' quality and greater structure will enable them to pull away in the second half and I would expect to see the game open up considerably in the last quarter. Sadly I will not be playing any part. A nasty clash of heads on Monday night (well, my face, his head) has left me with 11 neat little stitches above the right eye. For those in need of rugby-related needlework in the future, I can thoroughly recommend the Sanitorium.

In Division 3, Select take on Typhoons on the Valley pitches at 3pm while Sequins meet with Comvita City (whoever they may be) at 'THT' (wherever that may be) in Division 4. Bulls take on CWB in Division 5 (HKFC at 1.30pm) and GaIce will meet DEA (HKFC at 4.30pm.) All this weekend's fixtures in the divisions relevant to us are listed below, with the club games in bold.

Finally, don't forget the Walton Brunch on Sunday!


G4S League Fixtures by Division 2008/09
Week 4 - Saturday 8th November 08

Division 1
DeA Tigers v Synovate HKCC, KP, 6.00pm
CBRE Club v Manulife CWB Rams, HKFC, 6.00pm
InProjects Kowloon v Tradition Valley, SKP, 6.00pm

Division 2
Nomads v Synovate HKCC II, KP, 4.30pm
CBRE Club II DRAGONS v CBRE Club III SCORPIONS, HKFC, 3.00pm
Laxton PLA v Tradition Valley Knights, Guangzhou, 2.30pm

Division 3
DeA II v Synovate HKCC III, KP, 3.00pm
Rouse & Co Typhoons v CBRE Club IV SELECT, HV, 3.00pm
SJM Macau v Tradition Valley Mustangs, SKP, 4.30pm

Division 4
Comvita City v CBRE Club SEQUINS, THT, 3.00pm
Gai Wu J v Manulife CWB Pirates, HV, 4.30pm
InProjects Kln Barbars v Tradition Valley Broncos, SKP,3.00pm
Police v University. PBS, 3.45pm

Division 5
DeA III v Synovate HKCC IV, KP, 1.30pm
CBRE Club VI BULLS v Manulife CWB Marines, HKFC, 1.30pm
InProjects Kln Beavers v Tradition Valley Griffins, SKP, 1.45pm
Police Panthers v University II, PBS, 2.30pm

Women’s 15s Division
Club/Gai Wu v DeA, HKFC, 4.30pm
CWB v Abaloon, THT,4.30pm