SANDY BAY CAPTURE FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON IN THRILLER OVER KOWLOON

20th Oct 2018

Herbert Smith Freehills HKU Sandy Bay had an historic afternoon at King’s Park, claiming their first win as a newly constituted club and their first victory of the Saxo Capital Markets Men’s Premiership season, after beating Kerry Hotel Kowloon 16-13.

Despite the bottom of the table standings of both sides, the clash at King’s Park was as even and exciting as expected, with neither side enjoying a lead larger than five points on an afternoon marked by an amazing amount of open play, with only eight scrums packed down.

Kowloon had the better of the scoring chances in the first 20 minutes, repeatedly breaching the defence behind lumbering runs from No.8 James Sawyers, who carved out metres in massive chunks against the Sandy Bay defensive line in the first half, Hong Kong captain James Cunningham and some darting attacks from scrumhalf Bryn Phillips, one of several potential first caps included in the Hong Kong travel squad for the World Cup repechage in France next month.

But all of Kowloon’s attacking play came to naught with Sandy Bay the first team on the board after wing Jack Metters gave his side a rare early lead this season, slotting his first penalty in the sixth minute.

Kowloon fly half Jack Hughes leveled moments later with his first penalty, leaving the scores deadlocked at 3-all - the first indication of what was to come across the final hour of a titanic arm wrestle.

Sandy Bay were at times fortunate early on as the Kowloon attacks went awry at the final stages, but also created plenty of their own luck with some hard tackling leading to early turnover and counter-attacking chances.

Tom McQueen broke the deadlock on his first start for Sandy Bay, scoring his first Premiership try in over two seasons after extended breaks for injury and the completion of a pilot training course with his brother Alex in Australia.

The ever-mercurial McQueen was up to his old tricks once again, taking a quick tap and go penalty at the half-way mark and bobbing and weaving his way deep into Kowloon territory.  

Sandy Bay’s forwards supported well to recycle the ball after McQueen was felled five metres. Play shifted to midfield before scrumhalf Liam Slatem found McQueen in good attacking position out wide. The Hong Kong winger finished well, shrugging off Tomasi Lawa and Thomas Bury in defence to score.  Metters missed the conversion, leaving Sandy Bay up 8-3 with ten minutes left in the half.

Shortly before half-time Kowloon finally scored the try they had deserved in the early going, with another positive foray yielding their first five-pointer.  Kowloon’s pack the forwards recycled the ball well as they inched into position a metre out from Sandy Bay’s posts.  

Lock Andy McEwen was in the right place at the right time as he dived over the pack for the try.  Hughes’ conversion at the hooter was good and Kowloon had taken its first lead of the match 10-8 into half time.

Having come so close to victory over the past two weeks, both losses within seven points, Sandy Bay came out firing to start the second half.

Shortly after the restart, the game again turned on some individual brilliance when Metters put in a surprising chip kick, got the fortunate bounce, and found captain Gair Currie waiting.  Currie did well to keep the attack alive before popping the ball to flanker Matt Lamming charging hard into space.  Lamming was left with work to do but muscled over nicely to score. Metters’ missed conversion left Sandy Bay leading 13-10.

Sandy Bay then frustratingly returned the favour to Kowloon, conceding a kickable penalty, which Hughes slotted without drama t to tie the game, 13-all, with 30 minutes left.

Sandy Bay upped its work rate, turning over Kowloon in the line-out and later charging down a kick to keep the home side under real pressure. That pressure was converted into points in the 64th minute when Metters’ second penalty gave Sandy Bay the lead, 16-13, inside the last 15 minutes.

Kowloon threw everything into the attack down the stretch, dominating possession across the final five minutes all of which they spent camped out on the Sandy Bay try-line.  

Kowloon retained the ball across more than 20 possessions as they moved the attack from sideline to sideline looking for the gap. But Sandy Bay were up to the task, shutting every door as soon as Kowloon knocked. Eventually, Kowloon muscled over what looked to be a late game-winner but referee Tim Baker, after discussion with his assistant referee, adjudged the ball was held up in the tackle and called full-time, giving Sandy Bay its first win of the 2018/19 season.

“It was exciting game, but not very good for the nerves and the heart,” said a proud Sandy Bay coach Brett Wilkinson post-match.

“I think it was always going to be a tight game and I am just very proud of the character the guys showed in the past five minutes. We talked about it before the game that it might be close and we might be hanging on for a win.

“So I’m just so proud of the way the players dug in at the end and defended our line, phase after phase. Those will be good things for the team to build on going forward.

“This is something we can definitely build on. Am I happy with our accuracy? No. We can be a lot more accurate and clinical in what we do, and there were a lot of mistakes for us, but I’m just proud of the way we showed their character. That is what Sandy Bay are all about,” Wilkinson added.

Natixis HKFC handed Societe Generale Valley a heavy loss in the Valley, 31-10, while Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish defended the Broony Quaich for a second straight outing, beating Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers 31-13 at Shek Kip Mei in today’s other Saxo Capital Markets Premiership results.


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