The rain and the wind didn’t deter a healthy and boisterous crowd from sploshing their way to King’s Park Sports Ground last Sunday for the culmination of this season’s Standard Chartered Tertiary XVs League.

With a total of 16 men’s and 13 women’s teams participating, for the first time the competition was split into separate “Elite” and “Qualifier” sections, with pool matches played over the past six weeks.

The transitionary nature of student life means that the fortunes of the tertiary teams can rise and fall in a short space of time, as exemplified by the absence of both last year’s defending men’s and women’s Cup champions, Linglan and Poly University respectively, in this year’s finals.

It does, however, make for a highly competitive and unpredictable competition, and all those sheltering under umbrellas in the packed stands were treated to a feast of passionate play throughout the afternoon’s seven finals.

In the Qualifier section, there was double happiness for the students from HKU SPACE who took home both the men’s and women’s titles, the latter after a nail-biting encounter with Linglan/HKUST which was finally decided by the fact SPACE had scored the first try of the game.

For the Elite, Chinese University saw off last year’s men’s champions Linglan to take the Bowl, while City University secured the Plate after an entertaining encounter with HKU; in the women’s Plate, Shue Yan University took the honours with a 10-0 win over Chinese University.

Both the men’s and women’s Cup finals featured the same line-up, with Baptist University facing the institute formally known as HKIEd, now proudly re-christened the Education University of Hong Kong. The women’s game was a fitting climax to the season, with a plethora of tries and some tremendous skills on show, the EUHK side finally running out 33-12 winners. In contrast the men’s final featured only one try, but was no less gripping as both teams put on impressive demonstrations of gritty and determined defence; it was nip and tuck from the first to the final whistle, with EUHK having one final penalty attempt right on the stroke of full time, but with the ball drifting just wide of the uprights the Baptist players’ celebrations began as they held on to 5-3 victory. So, with the Baptist men becoming the 12^th recipients of the Varsity Cup which was originally presented by Oxford University Rugby Club, the curtain came down on what according to the Union’s Chris Lin has been another successful and enjoyable tertiary season; “I’d like to congratulate all the teams that picked up silverware today, but equally a big hand to every team that’s taken part in our sevens, touch and 15s competitions and of course as always a huge thank you to the HKSRFUR who have supported us with match officials, the medical team, and all the coaches, managers and volunteers who have given their time and energy. And finally a huge thanks to our sponsors Standard Chartered who have been fantastic partners of tertiary rugby for many years – I’m already looking forward to next season!”

Standard Chartered Tertiary League Finals2016/17