Updates from Steve Tarrant - Director of Rugby
A bit of a disappointing day at Boundary Street today. The U16s were left without a game after Kowloon cried off and forfeited the final. The boys were happy enough to win the plate but all of them would have rather played a game and attached is a picture of them with the trophy.
The U19s played HKU and it was a very hard game. HKU are a big side and it was always going to be a tough game. Our recent lack of matches told early on and with the boys overly keen and committing to the rucks in large numbers we both gave away too many penalties and left ourselves over exposed out wide. We quickly went 14 – 0 down and it looked like we were in for a really bad afternoon. However the boys scrummaged really well and were also strong at the line outs, so we won plenty of ball and slowly clawed our way into the game. However those penalties meant we kept losing ground and had to start all over again. The pressure told and they ran in two more tries to go 24 – 0 ahead. Just before half time we managed to get the ball to Peter on the wing with some room and he ran from just outside our 22 to score a fine try. So we reached half time at 24 – 5.
Gunny and Tank gave the boys a hard time about the ruck penalties and in the second half we hardly gave away any. We committed less to the rucks and with us tackling well they had much less room to move. With a steady stream of possession from the scrums and lineouts we worked our way back into the game and a fine try after about 6 or 7 phases of play put us back in the game at 24-12. As Gunny said afterwards the first 25 mins of the second half was some of the best rugby the team played all season, with the try being one of our best. It was a great team effort. However it was not to be and the boys were exhausted by the end allowing HKU to slip in for a score under the posts after some tired tackling allowed them an easy score. So it ended 31 -12, but HKU certainly knew they had been in a game. The boys played really well and there was no shame in defeat. A picture of the two teams after the match is attached.
March is a busy month. We have a few friendlies arranged, which will allow many of the new boys to get some game time and also there are the colts sevens. At the end of March are the HK Sevens and we have a team entered in the Kowloon Tens that week, which will be made up of some ex-Breakthrough boys and some of the bigger U19s. On the Friday night all of the rugby section of Breakthrough will attend the Sevens, with some of the lads visiting the Standard Chartered Box. Standard Chartered Bank, being our main sponsors. Thanks also to some very generous donations from other people most of the boys will also get to go to the Sevens on Saturday or Sunday. Then in April we are off on tour to Phuket. So despite this being our last official 15-a-side games there is still much to look forward to in March.