Societe Generale Valley capped its 40th anniversary season in style after claiming both the men’s and women’s HKRU Premiership Grand Championship titles Saturday at King’s Park.
Valley’s men’s team proved its strength in depth once again with a comprehensive 21-5 win over league runners-up Leighton Asia Hong Kong Cricket Club (HKCC), scoring 16 points in the second half to put the game away. Valley’s women’s XV were made to work much harder after a magnificent team performance from their opponents CPM Gai Wu Falcons, who were edged in the last minute of the final, 12-10.
Valley’s other sides in the domestic competition reached the Grand Final of four other leagues today, winning silverware in two other finales today. The Valley Premiership A men’s team beat Natixis Hong Kong Football Club (HKFC) to sweep the elite men’s domestic competition while the club’s Premiership A women’s team Valley Red Ladies were pipped by Comvita City, 8-5. Valley Mavericks won against HKFC in the National League 1B Grand Final while Valley Ma Jai lost to Comvita City in the Development B league Grand Final.
“Fortieth anniversaries don’t come around very often, but to cap it like this was special,” Valley Director of Rugby Dean Herewini told the Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU).
Ahead of today’s men’s Grand Championship, HKCC coach Deacon Manu asked his team for a fast start and he got just that as the Cricketers dominated the early stages of a torrid first half. But HKCC failed to capitalise on vast swathes of possession and territory, while instead allowing Valley to strike on its first real opportunity of the half when prop Leon Wei Hon Sum came away with a try in the 16th minute after a scrum deep in HKCC’s territory. Ben Rimene’s conversion was wide as the blustery conditions wreaked havoc on the kicking game in the opening half.
The second half was a different story, however, as Valley came out with a comprehensive display, driven by superb all-around play from the forward pack, led by man of the Final hooker Dayne Jans.
Valley centre Matt Rosslee spins away from HKCC centre Alex McQueen in the Grand Final
Valley scored 13 unanswered points after the break with another forward, flanker Toby Fenn, finding the gap from in close again to dive over for a try in heavy traffic in the 47th minute. Rimene, judging the wind at his back perfectly, slotted a beautiful curving conversion to push his side out to a 12-0 lead.
HKCC indiscipline saw them concede eight penalties in the second half and Rimene made them pay, striking two of three penalty attempts in the final 40 minutes to push the league champions out to an 18-0 lead after 63 minutes. Having built a comfortable lead, Valley was content to use the wind to its advantage as they repeatedly kicked long to keep HKCC penned deep in its half for much of the remaining stages
HKCC’s only points of the final came in the 70th minute with a try from towering centre Conor Hartley threatening to set the stages for an exciting last 10 minutes. But Alex McQueen’s conversion attempt into the wind was unsuccessful, dropping HKCC heads a bit lower. Any hopes of a miracle comeback were extinguished when flanker Matt Lamming was sin-binned for HKCC in the 74th minute. Ben Rimene slotted the ensuing penalty, his third of the night, to bring the final score to 21-5 and return the Grand Championship trophy to Happy Valley for a fourth straight season.
Valley coach Jack Isaac smiled for what may be the first time this season saying, “It’s been a great year working with these guys and I’ve loved every minute of it. You couldn’t ask for a better group of players. I’m really happy for them because they’ve worked hard enough to deserve this accolade tonight.”
Valley’s win gives the club its fourth consecutive Grand Championship win over HKCC, but its first as league champions in that time period. It was the first double for the Club since 2008.
“It was pretty tight in the first half,” said a disappointed HKCC coach Deacon Manu. “I asked for a big start from the guys and I certainly got that. We didn’t really capitalize too much in those opening stages, but I was happy with the first half. In the second, we really struggled to get out of our own half. Once they built a lead they applied pressure. With their squad depth they were able to bring on some forwards in the second half that really made a big difference, while we entered the end of the season a bit depleted.”
Regardless of entering the final on a 28-match winning streak, the Valley women’s premiership team, also known Valley Black, showed their first signs of nerves this season in the face of an incredible defensive performance from the Gai Wu Falcons.
Gai Wu threw everything they had into their defensive effort, and despite conceding size across the park to Valley nearly pulled off the miracle win. Gai Wu unsettled Valley from the kick-off, forcing the defending champions into some uncharacteristic mental errors and ill discipline in the early stages.
Fullback Aggie Poon Pak Yan was once again the bright star for the Falcons, as she slotted a penalty late in the first half to give Gai Wu a 3-0 lead going into the break. Gai Wu showed no signs of letting up in the second half either as a series of big tackles and impressive gains in the scrum built the challengers’ momentum and kept Valley on edge.
Ultimately it was Valley’s duo of overseas internationals in flanker Olivia Coady (New Zealand) and flyhalf Bella Milo (Samoa) who helped return some composure to the defending champions as they created attacking space with waves of powerful open-field runs. But Gai Wu’s defence never cracked as effective gang-tackling prevented Valley from scoring any long tries.
Coady made the immediate impact on the scoreboard in the second half, crossing over for the first of two tries in the Grand Final after capitalizing on a good shove by the Valley pack deep in Falcons territory to give Valley its first lead of the match, 7-3, in the 45th minute, after Milo’s conversion from the corner was successful.
Almost immediately Gai Wu was back on the march with Poon once again wreaking havoc with some incisive running right at the heart of Valley’s midfield defence. Late in the match, Poon executed a perfect running line to come off the far wing and collect a lovely switch pass from centre Ho Hoi Lam to catch the Valley defence flat-footed. Poon once again showed the cleanest heels in Hong Kong Women’s rugby as she motored away to touch down beneath the posts. Poon converted her own try to give Gai Wu a 10-7 lead inside the last five minutes.
To most observers, it looked as if Valley’s 28-match winning streak was coming to an end and once again at the hands of Gai Wu, the last team to beat them in league play in the 2014 Grand Final, but Valley still had one bit of black magic left up their sleeves as they regrouped to put Gai Wu under pressure. Captain Jen Mackay lead the breakout as she conjured up a great solo run from deep in her half to put Valley into attacking territory.
From there Valley’s veterans stood up to be counted. A line-out deep in Gai Wu’s half was well corralled by Coady, quickly offloaded to lock Samantha Scott Feausi. The ball moved through centre Adrienne Garvey’s hands and then on to number-eight Amelie Seure who crashed ahead as Valley chewed up territory.
Valley’s late attack resulted in a scrum for Gai Wu defending their try-line. With victory in sight, Valley was unrelenting and a great shove at the scrum pushed the Gai Wu defence past the breaking point.
The loose ball at the base of the scrum was bobbled by the Gai Wu defence and Coady quickly pounced on the loose ball to score her second try of the Grand Final – adding to her five-try effort against Gai Wu in the final league match of the season – and securing a memorable 12-10 win for Valley. Coady was named Woman of the Match for her efforts.
Valley’s win extended their unbeaten streak to 29 matches and two full seasons as they doubly defended their double from last season. A relieved coach Chris Garvey commented on a cracking Final saying, “I thought if Gai Wu were in it in the last ten minutes I would start to worry, but I didn’t expect that I’d be worried for the entire 70 minutes [women’s premiership matches are 35-minute halves]. We knew they would come at us but they were simply outstanding today.”
“They were the better team this afternoon to be honest and probably deserved the win, but when you have a team like ours that is used to winning, even when they don’t play well they still know how to get the win and that was the difference today.”
“This final also proves how strong the Women’s competition is. The top three sides are really competitive, and there are a few more teams chasing as well. We’ve seen a lot of growth this year in the league and we all want to keep that going,” Garvey added.
Words/Photo: Hong Kong Rugby Union
