Club Magazine Issue 06, 2018

MINI RUGBY
U10s
U10s
Macau Bats Tournament
U10s
On Saturday 14th April, HKFC U10’s took two
teams to Macau for the Macau Bats Mini Rugby
Festival. With four games each to be played on
a hot and humid afternoon it’s was going to be
hard work.
The teams were raring to go with players
inspired by the sevens the weekend before. Up
first were HKFC 2, they were playing Stingrays
followed by Valley, USRC Tigers and DB
Pirates. They played really well coming away
with 2 wins. HKFC 1 team played Macau Bats,
Donngguan Bulldogs, Flying Kukris and Sandy
Bay and finished undefeated.
Both teams put in a tremendous amount of
work and effort, passing the ball well and
creating lots of opportunities to score tries.
Thank you Macau Bats for putting on a great
festival, everyone came away having had a
enjoyable day playing great rugby.
HKFC 1
Declan Smulders, Gussy Lyons, Hugo
Stanbridge, Jamie Pennel, Kota Wong, Liam
Gordon, Michael Lee, Nicholas Keeley and
Ollie Phillips
HKFC 2
Aleric Hall, Gaspard Manoel, Christopher
Imbriaco, Isaac Darling, Jack Duggan, Jack
Scott, Max Norman, William Barnett and
Dimitri Dimopoulos
Rich Phillips
Under 7
The HKFC U7s fielded a ‘Barbarians’ team (i.e.
players from across our four regular training
groups) in the Macau tournament.
We had a fantastic turn-out (twelve players for
one squad), and - in order to give our squad
as much rugby as possible – we, perhaps
over-generously gifted our own U8s with two
of our strongest players - Simon Danjoux and
Lawrence Jones.
The remaining U7 squad performed very well
– we remained unbeaten throughout the day,
finishing 2nd in our group as a result of a very
hotly-contested draw with Valley (1-1), which
included a disallowed try for FC after Ante
Galic had stormed over the line and forgot,
momentarily, that we were playing touch rugby
not American Football in the end zone!! So with
wins over Macau Bats, and DEA Tigers, we
came 2nd in our group; in the 3rd/ 4th place
play off, we enjoyed a ‘come from behind’ win
against Sandy Bay – a great way to end the
tournament and our regular season.
Well done to all the players who really ‘gelled’
during the day. Special mentions to Naomi
Chan, Liam Norman, Gus Grewcock, Rob
Ramsey and James Raper who will be
representing the U7s at Tanglin in Singapore,
and who all responded well to the knock out
competition! Let’s hope we can end a place or
two higher in Singapore!
U6
Duncan Grewcock
A group of nine very excited five-year-olds
toured to Macau to participate in their first
overseas tournament on the 14th April.
The squad (carefully selected by Head Coach,
Mark Tsui) comprised: Dylan Akandu, George
Brock, Paddy Galvin, Sebastian Lai, Lachlan
McGowan, Max Randall, Ben Roboredo,
Riku Shiotani, and Declan Tsui.
The team was drawn in Group B, with HKU
Sandy Bay, Flying Kukris and, the hosts,
Macau Bats. Coach Tsui, learning from Sir
Clive Woodward’s strategy of timed use of
replacements, divided the team into three
groups of three with a view to rotating them at
halftime.
First match a tight 2-0 to Club, defeating HKU.
Then up was Flying Kukris; the team, gaining
confidence, won 3-0. Final group game was
another impressive 3-0 against Macau Bats. So
being undefeated, and not having conceded a
try, the team progressed to the Cup Final.
If there is going to be a Cup Final then being
U6
U6
U6
against Valley (who won Group A) was fate.
The team took to the field under the on-pitch
coaching of Mark “I’ll do this” Tsui. Group A
were told “play your hearts out as Group C
will replace you at half time”. The match was
deadlocked until a heartbreaking Valley try. With
little time on the clock, Valley committed an
infringement and a penalty was awarded with
consequent turnover. The boys did not need to
be asked twice: running straight up the pitch to
score. At 1-1 the klaxon sounded for full time; in
another pounding attack the ball went
over the line. Club won 2-1: U6 Cup won “job
done, tick”.
Medals having been presented there was a
celebratory lunch at Fernando’s on Coloane.
On the ferry home the boys belted out a terrible
rendition of Queen’s anthem: “We Are The
Champions”. We now know that U6 play better
rugby than sing …..
Thanks to our on pitch coaches of Andy “Lordy
it’s hot” Randall, Jose “I’ve been here for days”
Roboredo and Mark “I’ll do this” Tsui, who
guided U6 to their first tournament Cup.
Denis Brock
20 June 2018