Club recapture pride against DEA

Above: If you can't see me, you can't tackle me. You probably can't tackle me anyway. Horse, pictured here against HKCC IIs last weekend, made his Club debut on Saturday. Photo: Jacky Yeung

CBRE Club 26 - 3 DEA Tigers

Club returned to victory on Saturday, overcoming a spirited but rather one-dimensional DEA side in the final act of a knockout competition that the Club players would probably rather forget. Having dispatched Valley in the first round, Club were turned disappointingly turned over by Aberdeen in the semi-final. The form book makes no sense at this stage of the season, though. Club beat Valley and lost to Abedeen. Aberdeen beat Club and were then routed by Valley in the final on Saturday. Frankly this roundabout explains why the knockout cup should be held at the end of the league season - when the teams are more finely honed and consistently closer to the peak of their game - than at the beginning, when the difference between one performance and the next can be somewhat Jekyll and Hyde-like.

Like almost all victories in rugby - with the possible exception of Wales's 2005 Grand Slam - Club's was built on the foundation of a very solid pack. Ian Ridgeway made an impressive debut at loosehead and Stephen 'Horse' Nolan added his not-incosiderable presence at the tighthead side to replace the injured Nigel Hobler. The result was immense pressure on DEA at the set-piece, often forcing their scrum-half to try desperate soccer passes to their unimpressed number 10 and giving Club the most commanding of platforms.

After working hard in training to bring some aggression and nous to their work in the tackle area, Club were able to exercise better control at the ruck than they had against Aberdeen, although the penalty count for ruck infringements was still frustratingly high. Despite the absence of Dan Watson, the forwards were also able to dominate the DEA lineout. Put simply, the Club pack simply had more 'mongrel' than before, with Nathan Johnston and Tim Griffin outstanding in this respect.

Add to this the return of Pete McKee and his long range missile of a pass and it should come as no surprise that Club's backs, pivoting on James Kibble at outside half, enjoyed more space and freedom than they did the previous week. An early score from Kibble was followed up with tries by Johnstone, the tireless Tim Edgar from close in and Andrew Chambers, who ran through to touch down following a neat kick through. Mike McKee added three conversions.

Club's defence was robust throughout, although DEA had no great cutting edge and squandered a number of their better opportunities.

A nasty shoulder injury for Jamie Hood in the second half along with some tactical changes by Coach Quinton Wrigley resulted in the imposing centres pairing of Richard Rouse and Dave Tibbot in the second half. Some enjoyably direct running from this duo will surely give Coach 'Q' another permutation to consider as the season continues.

Indeed, Q and the greybeards of that mysterious cabal known as the selection committee will have quite a balancing act to perform as time goes on, while also being aware that consistency in selection is a proven virtue. The influx of top quality new players this season presents them with this weekly dilemma: they can only name three 'N' players (players not resident in Hong Kong for more than six months) in the squad and there are many more than three Ns who are likely to merit consideration.

Most importantly, though, Club clearly have the depth of talent to sustain a long and hard campaign to retain the league title. Saturday's performance, although by no means the finished article, indicates that Club also have the collective will to bounce back from a bad performance.

Harps

Club falter against Aberdeen

Club 5 - 16 HKCC

The sad news is that there will be no league and cup double in 2008/09. After successfully seeing off Valley in the first round last weekend, Club stumbled against a very motivated and well-organised Abderdeen team on Saturday, eventually succumbing 16-5.

Club will be disappointed with a peformance in which they were rarely able to achieve much continuity or fluency, but it is still the beginning of campaign and the greatest prize in Hong Kong rugby - the first grade championship - has not even started yet.

Without question, Club looked rusty. Injuries and absences had enforced wide-ranging changes in team composition from the previous week. But in spite of struggling to find cohesion and impose themselves on the opposition, Club were still able to restrict the score to 0-3 until the last third of the match. It is often and, I think, rightly said that a mark of a good team is their ability to compete when not playing well, and that was certainly true of Club at the weekend.

While this was not the team performance we might have hoped for, there were a number of encouraging signs. The scrum was dominant throughout the game as Pete Spizziri, Tom Bolland and Nigel Hobler took control. There were also fine performances in the forwards from Tim Griffin, Tim Edgar and, after their introduction in the second half Nathan Johnson and Rob Mills.

For much of the game, though, quality ball for the backs was extremely scarce. The backline, led by Captain James Kibble, was solid in defence but had little space or opportunity to attack. Too often, Club were either turned over in the tackle area or rather zealously penalised for holding on or going in off the feet. The effect, I'm afraid, was to stifle any kind of forward movement. Club only briefly gained momentum through a series of well-executed phases later in the second half in a pattern that led to Rob Mills' try. Aberdeen competed hard at the ruck and were smart in terms of pushing what they could get away with - my abiding memory of a few minutes on the pitch is charging into a few rucks only to find one of the Pale brothers standing up after making the tackle and coming in from the same side as the Club forwards...

Club can and will do better. As several people remarked after the game: "good teams sometimes just have off days." What's crucial now is to turn this off day into a catalyst for the future.

Harps

They only did it...

CBRE Club 26 - 19 Crown Valley

Well they only went and did it, didn't they? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Club turned over Valley on Saturday evening with a performance of tremendous intensity, characterised by dogged determination and illuminated by lengthy periods of top-class rugby. Make no mistake, this is as well as Club have played this season - and against a good Valley team whose desire to fight back against their old enemy after two previous defeats was all to obvious. But it was Club's day and, although they must win at least two more games to make the title safe, they demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt on Saturday that they are the dominant force in Hong Kong rugby. Let the joy be unconfined...

This was never going to be easy, but Angus Washington calmed Club's nerves from the very start, using his considerable height and presence to claim a fine Aussie Rules-style catch from the kick-off - an achievement he repeated again and again throughout the game. From there, Club moved straight into top gear, putting pressure on Valley in their own 22. The set-piece started well and remained superior all evening, as Spizziri, Cameron and Hobler laid down the law against a very solid Valley front row. Add to this Valley's inability to contest line-out ball thrown to one of the world's less likely jumpers - the admirable Tim Edgar at the back of the line - and Pat Foreman realised he could initiate a pragmatic positional kicking game, safe in the knowledge that the forwards had the better of their opposite numbers.

But Club's game would go further than this. Ruck ball was won more quickly and securely, in my view, than at any time previously this season and Foreman was able to release Club's classy backline on several occasions. Richard Rouse looked sharp at centre, but it was the full-back Mike McKee who crossed for Club's first score early in the second half. At that point, Club were in the box seat and Valley looked nervous - their outside half Judd was played into constant trouble by a string of passes under pressure that bounced like dambuster bombs and had to be collected around his ankles as the Club back row zeroed in on him.

Write Valley off at your peril, though, especially when they are playing HKFC. After McKee's score, the reds managed to break up the pattern of Club's game and to thrive in a more chaotic environment. Suddenly Club were turned by breakaways and hack-throughs and before you know it, Valley had scored twice and converted once, giving them 12 points to Club's 5. However, Club stemmed the tide, regrouped and were able to hit back with a Mike McKee penalty and a cool 40-yard drop goal from Foreman on the stroke of half time. It was 12-11 to Valley at the turn, but Club were regaining the momentum.

Club knew the game was theirs to win, but that it was crucial to retain their shape against a Valley team intent on playing a disruptive game. They came out carrying and rucking ferociously, generating the momentum that allowed Rouse to bounce off several would-be tacklers to score under the posts early in the half. McKee converted to make it 18-12. Advantage Club, but still not a safe game by any means. It would be unfair to single out any single player, but Club played 30 minutes of wonderfully committed, aggressive and controlled rugby in the second half - even when down to 14 men after Tim Griffin, whose workrate had been second to none, was rather unfortunately yellow-carded for a high tackle. Replacements were also critical with Rupert "Churchie" Clark and Dean Finnegan coming off the bench to play their part. Club put the game away perhaps 10 minutes from the end when a long period of pressure close to the Valley line ended in Colin Begg (another replacement) scampering over in the corner. With another McKee penalty, that gave Club a 26-12 lead.

Once again, Valley refused to lie down and die. Instead they came back firing, scoring a converted try to make it 26-19 and camping on the Club line as injury time went on, and on, and on. Desperate tackling denied Valley their great escape, however, and Club supporters' palpitations were soon replaced by sheer joy at a great performance which marked an unprecedented 3-0 whitewash of Valley in 2007-08. Celebrations are premature as the season is not yet finished, and in any case should be tempered by the loss of No. 8 Rob Mills with an anterior cruciate ligament injury, but Club have stepped up a level here and the rest of HK rugby must be wondering how they can counter the resurgence of a Club that has been so often (and so wrongly) derided as pampered, soft and undermotivated. The Empire Strikes Back? Let's hope so. Bring on Aberdeen next Saturday...

More to come on Scorps, Drags v PLA this weekend and A Guide to Playing Rugby in Guangzhou...

Harps

Club finish the task for 2007

CBRE Club 16 - 8 InProjects Kowloon

In the sunshine at So Kon Po, with 30,000 evangelical Christians singing in the stadium close by, Club saw off a concerted challenge from Kowloon to get into the Christmas break well ahead at the top of the Division One table with just one loss in eight games. Getting this result in the bag was critical for coach Quinton Wrigley and his team, even if the performance was once again a little on the scrappy side. After losing to HKCC, Club have rediscovered their ability to tough out victories when they are not playing at anything like their potential. The task after Christmas will be to achieve (to paraphrase Q) better execution of their gameplan.

Too often on Saturday, Club were dragged into a chaotic, harum-scarum game that suited Kowloon far better. What was required was a tight performance, with a strong Club back dominating in their opponents' 22 and Pat Foreman kicking for field position. Unfortunately, Club looked nervy and overly tense, making a large number of unforced errors, failing to secure their own possession and conceding vast numbers of penalties. When they did get the ball, apart from a 10 minute spell of good phase play in the Kowloon half, they too often threw the ball around in a style that might have been better suited to this weekend's sevens tournament than a must-win league game.

In fairness to Club, they were the only team trying to play rugby in this game. Kowloon's tactics revolved around crashing the ball up very directly through their big forwards. They had neither the ability in the half backs nor the necessary movement in the back division to orchestrate anything more sophisticated. Although 'Loon put in their tackles all day, their main objective seemed to be to antagonise and disrupt Club as much as possible, whether legitimately or otherwise. Their infringements at the breakdown were as blatant as a daylight bank robbery and their off-the-ball physicality had all the subtlety of a lunchtime mugging in Queen's Road Central.

This brings me on to a sad task, which is to criticise the referee. I hate doing this: there is no game without referees and - to a man- they all do their best to enforce the laws and act impartially. The sound of half-drunk middle-aged halfwits droning on about the referee from the sidelines is one of the curses of rugby. The gentleman who officiated on Saturday was certainly doing his best and was in no way partial. But he was, without question, incapable of refereeing a game at this level. His failure to spot and punish consistent infringeing at the ruck and maul and senseless acts of violence around the park was hugely culpable. Players will soon start to take advantage of incompetent refereeing (who can blame this?) and Kowloon certainly did, as they abandoned any pretence of an effort to move into onside positions when defending and used their hands in the ruck with impunity. The HKRFU needs to be absolutely sure that its Division One referees are up to the task because nothing can kill good, fair rugby as quickly and surely as an official who is not.

Anyway, ranting done. The game began brightly for Club when some good pressure from the backs resulted in 'Loon spilling the ball to Dan Parr, who moved the ball on to Richard Rouse for a score in the corner. Kowloon were soon back in contention, though, after some weak Club tackling allowed them to crash over. They soon followed this up with a penalty to take the lead. Two Pat Foreman penalties steadied the nerves, however, taking Club into half time at 11-8. Club probably played some of their best rugby in a longish period in the Kowloon 22 in the second half, but the final pass would not come for them and 'Loon's ability to raid the ruck in the knowledge they were unlikely to be penalised made it hard for Club to get quick ball. The half unfolded in this scrappy way until another good Club attack into Kowloon territory allowed Pete McKee to scoot round the blindside of a ruck and unload to Tim Griffin for a score. At 16-8, more than a converted try ahead, Club were essentially safe and the game was soon over.

Although the injury list remains long, Club were able to welcome back the McKee brothers Pete (at scrum half) and Mike (at full back). Pat Foreman and Callum Nieto worked tirelessly in the backs, while I thought the front row of Nigel Hobler, Ben Stobart and Pete Spizzirri were strong and Tim Edgar turned in a typically uncompromising performance.

This will not be one for the scrap books, but it took a lot of guts for Club to hang in there and they should be very happy with the first half of the season, as well as confident that they can go on and finish the job in 2008.

Harps

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

Drags smash Aberdeen at SKP

From Drags Team Manager, Murray Sargant

HKFC Dragons 51-7 HKCC

An outstanding result on the weekend against Aberdeen.

This weekend was not looking all that great for us as CJ and I worked hard on pulling the team together all week. Firstly on Thursday night Grewers hurt his neck and was not up to playing and secondly on game day itself Robin pulled up lame with a nagging calf strain. Luckily for Drags we called on Phil Reid and Shoey to fill the gaps and they didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately that did leave us with one reserve for the game itself but luckily it was super sub David Gutherie.

It became apparent early on that our pack was in a dominant frame of mind and the front row of Babis, Kim and Harper made sure that the Aberdeen scrum was going to have a long day in the office. We turned over at least four of their feeds and on our put in we were rock solid. This meant that we had heaps of procession and the result was some excellent pressure leading to the first try from Callum in left hand corner.

After that it was the turn of the Drags lineout to have a go. They didn’t disappoint with Tim jumping at 2 and Corks at 4 we dominated the air and made every lineout competitive. Plenty of quality ball for Phil Reid to distribute and the backline which didn’t disappoint. Raby was in confident form and looked dangerous every time he touched the ball. Two great tries from out wide and Aberdeen even with their star centre from the 1st were on the rack. Raby then did a Wilkinson and had an unsuccessful attempted at drop goal from just inside the halfway line. Won’t repeat what CJ thought of this use of the ball but you cant hold back the confidence of youth. He then went onto score three tries and set up a fourth so CJ felt all was forgiven. Stobart take note if you miss a drop goal you better score three tries.

Going into the half we felt comfortable and that resulted in our only lapse of the game. We were throwing the ball around from side to side and sure enough one of our passes got intercepted. The backs then recovered well bringing the Aberdeen centre down on the 22 meter line. However with quick ball and some fast rucks Aberdeen eventually got the ball back to their large centre who went over from close range. The resulting try and conversion really got Drags fired up and that meant more trouble for Aberdeen for the remaining second half.

The backs then really opened up with a second try to Callum on the wing. This was the try of the day as Callum raced down the right touch line Aberdeen seemed to have him covered. A little extra gas from Callum and a nice step made the Aberdeen defence hesitate and then the fullback went high. Callum brushed him off and managed to stay well inside the touch line for great solo try. The rest of the afternoon had Andy Yip get on the score board with two touch downs and also another for Raby and one each for Ramsey and Shannon finished off the 9 try wrought. The only negative was that Corkery got nailed in the ribs from a very hard hit in one of our many attacking moves. The result was three broken ribs and a painful end of the game for Corks. He is fine although he will need the next few weeks to get his ribs back in shape. I can confirm that straight after the hit and while he couldn’t breath his first words were “ I want to punch that fucker” Summed up the spirit in the team that day with everyone giving 110%.

By far the strongest game of the year from Drags despite not having a bench sorry David as you did get a run so we ended the game with no bench. The fact we never let up and kept scoring and putting the pressure on was excellent. We had starring performances right across the park with Raby leading the try count, Peyton and Shannon driving up the middle, Edgar and Corks in the air but the Man of the Match as voted by CJ and Ramsey as Captain was Phil Reid. Phil played a fantastic solid game in attack and was the fourth member of the backrow cleaning up any forwards that wanted to run in his direction. A great performance from him, a very worthy winner in what was a great day for Drags.

Well done to the entire team. A Superb effort.

HKFC Dragons v HKCC
Saturday 27 August, 3.00pm, SKP


1. Adam Harper
2. Kim Cau
3. Damien Babis
4. Peyton Burnett
5. Ramsey Carter(C) (try)
6. Shannon Ford (try)
7. Andrew Corkery
8. Tim Edgar

9. Phil Reid
10. Ben Harris
11. Adam Raby (3 tries)
12. Simon Shoebridge
13. Andy Yip (2 tries)
14. Callum Nieto (2 tries)
15. Ed Cosgrove

Replacement: David Gutherie

In Glorious Technicolour

Above: Gus demonstrates his sporting nature by turning his back to the opposition and offering them the ball. A fat bloke attempts to assist. (Picture: Brian van Langenberg)

Above: Nice shot of life at the coal face. Note the look of concentration on Tim Edgar's face; he's seen the ball at the DEA 8's feet and is preparing to fling himself at their No. 10 in the manner of Lewis 'Mad Dog' Moody. The Club backs are up nice and flat. (Picture: Brian van Langenberg)

ANYWAY, there you go. It's great to finally get some photos of us on the blog. These were kindly provided by Tim Edgar's friend, which is why they are a bit Edgar-centric. I really want lots more photos - they make this blog so much more interesting than my usual waffle. Please send 'em to me at adam.harper@asia.ing.com and I will publish the b*ggers, every one.

More to come ahead of tomorrow's games...

Harps