B8 March 6 - 12, 2014 Sports www.TheEpochTimes.com/Sports Pressure the key to winning as HKCC and Valley clash BILL COX/EPOCH TIMES BY DAVID BRYCESON a hard-fought 22-18 win against their work-rate at the breakdown EPOCH TIMES STAFF Abacus Kowloon the week before, where we were a little bit under- also won convincingly against powered,” West said. Newedge Club 25-3 in the other Rugby Union – Hong Kong Semi-fi nal at Happy Valley. Valley vs HKCC head-to-head Valley’s fl anker Nick Hewson Head-to-head Valley have beaten ing’s Park will be summed up his team’s perfor- HKCC in every encounter this sea- a pressure-cooker mance on Saturday (Mar 1) plainly. son: Valley beat HKCC 20-15 in K as battle-hardened “We were very clinical in every- Round 7, Nov 11; Valley beat HKCC Hong Kong Cricket thing we did today and the main 21-20 in the delayed Round 2, Jan Club and Valley Rugby Football thing was we controlled the break- 7; Valley beat HKCC 21-8 Round 12, Club meet in the last match of the down,” Hewson said. Jan 28. 2013-14 domestic rugby season. But Club’s Director of Rugby Valley won the same amount Hong Kong’s best two teams all Kevin West put it down to the bat- of games in the season as HKCC. season will fi ttingly face off in the tle-hardened pressure that Valley Signifi cantly, Valley won 12-lost Grand Final this weekend when brought to pitch, which made the 2-drew 1, while HKCC had a 12-3-0 Leighton Asia HKCC and Which- difference. record in the season’s matches. Who will crack under pressure? HKCC (right) and Valley are poised for an intense HKRFU Premiership Way Valley play to decide who will “They put us under an incred- Despite this, Valley came second Grand Final this weekend. The two teams are seen here in their Jan 7 match where Valley won by the be crowned Grand Champion at ible amount of pressure and the to HKCC by the narrowest of mar- narrowest of margins 22-21. King’s Park next Saturday Mar 8. errors came,’ said West. gins earned by bonus points. The team that can apply the HKCC will also start confi dent ings by 1-point in the last round – Rugby and Head Coach Andy Hall, “We have been in a comfort Accordingly, the pair were neck- most pressure, tempered by who having fi nished the home-and- they earned a bonus point while in a HKRFU press release. zone for the past few weeks hav- and neck for most of the season can handle the heat and keep up away season at the top of the thrashing Club 36-nil. But Cricket Despite dominating the scor- ing secured our third place in the and have been playing tough, the work-rate, will be the differ- standings and comprehensively Club started where they left off. ing Hall identifi ed an area for league, while Valley have been uncompromising, pressure foot- ence as both teams come into the defeating Hong Kong Scottish “Hong Kong Scottish played improvement. fi ghting it out and been under ball to crack the opposition’s Final well-tuned. 34-3 in their Semi-fi nal at Aber- well, but we weathered the pres- “Our lineout wasn’t fl ash today pressure as they tried to win the defence and attack, while bat- It is notable for Valley that they deen Sports Ground on Saturday sure that they exerted on us and so we will have to address that in league. tling it out for fi rst-place honours. have not been beaten by HKCC (Mar 1). the big thing is that we backed up the week. But I was pleased with “When it ramped up today, Put simply, HKCC and Valley are this season and should take con- There were concerns that HKCC from last week from the highs and most aspects of our game,” said we couldn’t handle the pressure the form teams of the competi- fi dence in the fact that they more might start a bit fl at following the elation against a side that were Hall. which led to mistakes. Also their tion – making this weekend’s Final than just match-up well against high from the week before when really hitting their straps and gun- Meanwhile, it won’t be one- defence was amazing. They are a all the more enticing. the season’s standing’s winners. they pipped Valley in the stand- ning for it,” said HKCC Director of way traffi c as Valley, coming off physical side and we suffered with Khalsa wins title with a Warriors show their metal as Sharks snap at Tycoons PATRICK CALKINS game to spare BY BILL COX ond half of the period for miscon- EPOCH TIMES STAFF duct, but Warriors maintained good defence and scored their sev- BY BILL COX April. enth goal late in the session for an EPOCH TIMES STAFF Meanwhile HKFC-A had another Ice Hockey – CIHL impressive 7-2 win. tight and diffi cult game against SSSC-A, but came away with a 3-2 In the fi rst round of the China Sharks vs Tycoons Hockey – Premier League win to move them into second Ice Hockey League (CIHL) best-of- The second match of the evening place ahead of Punjab-A on goal three playoffs, the season’s worst – between South China Sharks and With one game still remain- difference. performed team, Kowloon War- Hong Kong Tycoons – was tight ing Khalsa-A has logged enough HKFC-A will take on Khalsa-A riors, continued their improving with scores tied 2-all entering the points to claim the 2013-14 Hong next week and will be hoping to form to shock the season’s best fi nal Period. Kong Hockey Association Premier retain the runners-up spot, but performed team, Macau Aces. Tycoons were ahead 1-nil at the Division title. this is likely to be a diffi cult task Meanwhile, South China Sharks end of Preiod-1 with Andrew Alari Devin Welsh of the Kowloon Warriors fi red into the top of the net HKHA anticipated the potential as Punjab-A has an easier match showed consistency in defeating scoring the fi rst goal of the game. to take a 3-2 lead in the third minute of Period-2. Warriors defeated season-defi ning outcome and the against Valley-A. Although Val- Hong Kong Tycoons. Sharks hit back with a brace from Macaus Aces 7-2 in the fi rst round of best-of-three playoff s in the trophy was presented to Khalsa ley-A have been playing well in Jordan So mid-way through the CIHL on Saturday Mar 1. after they completed a convincing recent weeks they will need to go Aces vs Warriors second session, but Jeffrey Shui win over Punjab-A on Sunday Mar the extra mile if they are to take In Period-1 of the fi rst match of equalised for the Tycoons late in 2. The result gave them 41 points points off Punjab. the evening between Macau Aces by Kory Falite to make the score Yoshino, Andy Ramsay and a sec- the period to level the game at and a lead of 5-points over their Valley-A’s match against Sha- and Kowloon Warriors both teams 1-all. ond for Falite. Towards the end of 2-all. two main rivals HKFC-A and Pun- heen-A was postponed because seemed to start cautiously and it Sparks started to fl y in the sec- Period-2, Aces Jeff Griffi n was side- Although Adam Maglio and Tip jab-A. players were away on Hong Kong was not until later in the Period ond stanza and although Alvin lined for 10 minutes for miscon- Fleming scored for the Tycoons Khalsa again showed their duty in preparation for the Asia that the deadlock was broken, if Sham put the Aces in the lead in duct. in Period-3, it was the Sharks dominant form and consistency Games Qualifi ers in Dakar, Ban- only for a brief time – Aces scored the fi rst 30 seconds, it was the Period-3 became even rougher that stole the show with scores in the Premier Division with a gladesh starting Mar 13. with a strike by Christian Long in Warriors who pulled out a big with seven sin-bin offences – fi ve by Craig Falite, Julien Jorand and 5-1 win over Punjab-A, the sec- Meanwhile, in the lower half of the 9th minute; but, Warriors hit 6-2 lead – with strikes by Greg- by Warriors and two by Aces. a further three by So to bring the ond-placed team going into this the Premier Division, HKFC-B beat back two minutes later with a goal ory Smyth, Devin Welsh, Michael Welsh was off the ice for the sec- fi nal result for a Sharks 7-4 win. important penultimate match of Elite-A 5-2; KNS-A dropped back the season. A loss or draw would further behind after a 2-4 loss to have opened the way for HKFC-A KCC-A; while SSSC-B beat Pak-A or possibly Punjab-A to challenge 3-nil. Fast starting Waratahs have history against them for the title in the last match of the BY PETER LALANABARAVI Kurtley Beale has returned to the inconsistent. The super-reliable cen- after racing to an early 17-3 lead.