HONG KONG SUPER SERIES SIDES SWEEP PRINCETON

19th Mar 2016

The Hong Kong Rugby Union Women’s Premiership Super Series sides swept touring Princeton University today at King’s Park. The national team laden HKRU Scorpions dispatched Princeton A, 58-17, running in ten tries in a performance driven by a superior display from the forward pack. In the second match, the HKRU Vipers featuring a selection of promising emerging Premiership and National League 1 players ran out 37-0 visitors over Princeton B.

The Scorpions, with 15 Hong Kong internationals, turned in a comprehensive display with the forward pack dominating in both the set pieces and open play, despite yielding size and weight to their opponent. Princeton A threatened the Scorpions’ try-line from the kick-off but turned over possession and didn’t make another foray into opposition territory until 20 minutes - and three tries - later.

The first forty minutes saw the Scorpions control territory and possession as the forwards consistently crossed the gain-line with ball in hand, while the team defence aggressively attacked any Princeton charge, snuffing out most attacking threats.

The Hong Kong pack was exceptional in the scrum, consistently pushing Princeton off the ball in nearly every scrum in the match. Lock Claire Forster, Hong Kong XVs captain Chow Mei Nam and the front row of Tammy Lau Nga Wun, Jasmine Cheung Shuk Han and Winnie Siu Wing Ni were all inspirational, controlling the set-pieces and also popping up well in attack. Forster, Chow, Siu and Cheung all nabbed tries in the match, along with flanker Sharon Tsang.

Centre Lok Tung Cheng led all scorers with a hat-trick, including a second half brace, while winger Lau Sze Wa and scrumhalf Mak Ho Yee also added tries for the backline’s account.

The Scorpion’s halfback pairing of scrumhalf Mak Ho Yee and fly-half Rose Fong combined well to channel a surfeit of ball to the queuing backs. Fong, continuing her return from a lengthy injury break, put in a strong performance, directing play with a versatile array of wide passes, kicks from hand and cutting runs that kept Princeton’s defence on the back foot.

Fong, who also added four conversions, was singled out by both Hong Kong XVs coach Jo Hull and Princeton coach Chris Ryan, also the USA Women’s Sevens assistant coach, for her performance. “Their fly-half is pretty special. They played the whole first half in our end and I thought she could have kicked a bit more in the second to do it again, but they probably wanted to run,” said Ryan.

Hong Kong coach Jo Hull was keenly observing the action this afternoon as the Princeton matches will help determine the composition of Hong Kong’s training squad for the Asia Rugby Championship in May.

Hull was impressed, saying, “I was really pleased with our attack. We got some momentum going, which is what we talked about before the game. We wanted to build momentum and phase play, and we did. Full credit to the forwards, particularly, for that,” said Hull.

Hull pointed to the performances of Hong Kong lock Claire Forster and up and coming prop Jasmine Cheung as standouts in the pack, adding that it’s “great to have Rosie [Fong] back. She had some nice kicks and played very intelligently.”

Today’s performance will be a boon for the Hong Kong selectors. “These games help us massively. This tour is about match practice for the Asia Rugby Championship and while there was a lot we didn’t do very well today, there was a lot we can build from, particularly that go-forwards in attack,” said Hull, adding that the team “definitely needs to work on its defence.”

“In the second half, we wanted to minimize the mistakes, the knock-ons and missed tackles in particular, and we still have work to do in this area, but I was pleased that we kept our momentum. Today was the best that I have seen this team play throughout the Super Series.”

Hull was pleased at how the Scorpions negated Princeton’s size advantage, something which will be needed against Asian teams like Kazakhstan and Japan: “It’s important for us to work out how to play against bigger opposition and there were a lot of positives from today.”

Despite the loss, Ryan was pleased with his side’s performance: “I thought we did well considering it was our first hit-out for nearly five months. We learned some things today. We wanted to keep getting better as the game went on and I think we did that, but our fitness failed us at the end.

“I was surprised that their scrum beat us because of the size difference, but we started to figure that out a bit as the game wore on. We didn’t get down on ourselves, which was pleasing. It was only 27-5 at halftime, which isn’t bad. Any time you can score against a team like this it’s a good effort.”

In the second match, HKRU Vipers beat Princeton B 37-0 to successfully defend their home turf against the Tigers.

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