Injury-ravaged Club stand firm against DEA

CBRE Club 20 - 3 DEA Tigers

It wasn't pretty. But, and it's as big a but as Ramsay Carter's, the result was absolutely what mattered. With eight frontline players missing through injury, Club were never going to achieve the kind of fluency they managed earlier in the season. And although DEA were not without their own casualties (including captain and coach Nigel Clarke), this was just the kind of game in which they might have sensed weakness and turned Club over. Club will be relieved to have returned to winning form after their disappointing loss to HKCC Aberdeen the previous weekend, although I feel reasonably certain that coach Quinton Wrigley will feel there was room for improvement in the execution of Club's gameplan.

First the positives. A weakened team stuck together well and played for each other. Tenacious defending meant DEA did not score a try. Pat Foreman showed his versatility (and an enormous boot) by filling in at fly half. Phil Reid, called into the side after Pete McKee broke down in training on Thursday, was a doughty replacement. Alex Gibbs returned to the side in decent nick. And Ben Stobart, who came into the side to deputise for hooker Tom Cameron, showed an accurate throw-in at the line out and good mobility around the park (as well as his ever-surprising ability to wind up opponents with decidedly average banter...). Indeed, the whole side played with commitment and energy; they simply lacked the degree of cohesion and control people have come to expect.

Club will admit that this was not a hugely convincing display and more an example of gritting the teeth and winning ugly than anything else. DEA dominated possession for long periods of the game and were perhaps unlucky not to break through. Their one penalty does not accurately reflect the balance of the game. Both sides were guilty of ill-discipline and both were reduced to 13 men at times. For Club, Tim Edgar was yellow-carded for not rolling away while Stobart was sinbinned for holding on, although it looked more like hands in the ruck to me. Both were perhaps harshly treated, but both were nonetheless booked and two yellow cards within moments of each other left Club dangerously exposed with a two man disadvantage. Oddly, this was when they conspired to play some of their best rugby of the match.

Some good forward pressure enabled loosehead Pete Spizzirri to crash over in the first half, Kris Marin also crossed and Foreman - who was well on target - added two penalties and two conversions. Fixtures at this stage in the season are always affected by injury, but Club will need to rally again and get as many players as possible out of casualty and back on the park before next weekend's clash with a powerful Kowloon team that ran a full-strength Club side close in October. Make no mistake, Club have had a fantastic start to the season with seven wins from eight games and they go into the final match of the first round in a well-deserved first place, 11 points ahead of HKCC. But they will be desperately keen to be sure they do not take the gloss off round one by finishing 2007 with a defeat. Club's strength in depth and ability to draw on the rest of the Club's players will be critical.

Harps

CBRE Club v DEA Tigers
HKFC, 6pm, Saturday 24 November 2007

1. Pete Spizzirri
2. Ben Stobart
3. Nigel Hobler
4. Tim Robinson
5. Tim Griffin
6. Tim Edgar
7. Jared Smith (AQ)
8. Kris Marin

9. Phil Reid
10. Pat Foreman
11. Callum Nieto
12. Richard Rouse
13. Nigel D’Acre
14. Dan Parr
15. Alex Gibbs (AQ)

Replacements

16. Kahn Rudolf
17. Ben Stobart
18. Steve Matthew
19. Duncan Robertson
20. Ramsay Carter
21. Adam Raby (AQ)
22. Troy Hogan

Take from them everything and give to them nothing!

CBRE Club 13 - Valley 6

Alright, it wasn't quite as bad as the battle of Thermopylae (no-one was killed, for example, although I feared Churchy was quite close to death at one point). But Club v Valley on Saturday was the rugby equivalent of hand-to-hand combat. If you wanted running rugby and flash moves, you were at the wrong game. If you wanted backs-to-the-wall defence, guts, grit and determination, you were in exactly the right place. The Club steamroller drives on, but Kowloon - and now Valley - have provided the blue and whites with their toughest tests so far. At the end of a game in which the margin between the two sides was never more than a converted try, Valley's players were inconsolable. The look of pride and, frankly, relief on the Club side's faces told you both how close this game had been and how much it meant to everyone involved.

Like Napoleon at Waterloo, Valley threw everything they had at the Club defense for what seemed an eternity (there were at least 10 minutes of injury time), but could never quite do enough to dislodge their stubborn opponents. But Club's tenacity in meeting the runners head-on, or in hauling them down in more desperate circumstances, was admirable. Valley threatened again and again, but never crossed the Club line - an achievement of which the home side should be justifiably proud. At the other end, a typically robust run from Richard Rouse - who had a commanding game in defence and attack - gave Club its only seven-pointer, to which Mike McKee added with a conversion and two penalties.

The pressure exerted by Valley allowed them to slot two penalties, and it also resulted in two yellow cards: one for loosehead Pete Spizziri for not rolling away and one to replacement backrower Shannon Ford for, well, retaliation. Valley's onslaught took a physical toll as well. An early ankle injury to number eight Rob Mills meant Rupert "Churchy" Clarke had to come on and play the best part of a second game that day, which was an impressive effort from the big man. Rory Hussey was another casualty of the trench warfare, departing the field with a dislocated patella (that's a b*ggered knee to you and me).

It is on victories such as this that championships are built, and Club will know they can take a good deal more heart from this than walks in the park against Causeway Bay (81-3) or even their win against an oddly lacklustre HKCC (22-0). Once again the victory was bult on a solid forward platform (the scrum only wobbled when reduced to seven men after Spizziri's yellow card, but was otherwise dominant), intelligent play by the backs (bolstered by the return of Nigel D'Acre) and truckloads of grit. As we move into the business end of the season, there is every reason to hope that Club can deliver on their great start this year.

Harps

CBRE Club v Crown Valley

6pm, Saturday 10 November, HKFC

1.Pete Spizzirri
2. Tom Cameron
3. Nigel Hobler
4. Laurence Denvir
5. Tim Griffin
6. Tim Edgar
7. Rory Hussey
8. Rob Mills
9. Peter McKee
10. James Kibble
11. Dan Parr
12. Richard Rouse (try)
13. Nigel D’Acre

14. Andrew Chambers
15. Mike McKee (AQ), (1 conv, 2 pens)

Replacements:

Adam Harper (used, sin-bin replacement)
Ben Stobart
Jared Smith (AQ), (used)
Rupert Clarke (used)
Shannon Ford (used, yellow card)
Adam Raby (AQ), (used)
Callum Nieto