Club score vital win to move closer to league title
The fat lady is singing down at Sports Road and CBRE Club love the lyrics, which go something like 'We are the Champions'.
Only a massive turnaround in fortunes can deny Football Club from being crowned First Division league champions. Last night they moved one step closer to uncorking the champagne when they defeated arch-rivals Crown Valley 26-19.
Club have three games left in the league against Synovate HKCC, DeA Tigers and inProjects Kowloon. They will need to lose all three to give sole challengers Valley a sniff of a chance.
A highly unlikely occurrence, especially with the way Club have been playing all season. But skipper Nigel D'Acre refused to rejoice, preferring to be cautious and pertinently pointing out that his team had something to prove next Saturday when they meet HKCC.
'Winning today is great as it most certainly means Valley's league season is over. But as far as we are concerned, next Saturday is important as it is our game of redemption. We have to beat HKCC,' D'Acre stressed.
HKCC have been the only team to defeat Club this season. But that 15-10 victory in the second round was annulled by the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union after HKCC had mistakenly fielded an ineligible player. Club now want to prove that the 'loss' was just a blip in the radar.
Tries from Mike McKee, Richard Rouse and D'Acre paved the way for Club's win last night. They came back from trailing 12-11 at half-time to burst to a 26-12 lead. And then they staved off a determined comeback to emerge worthy winners.
While the glory was seized by the backs, scoring all the tries, it was Club's forwards who laid the groundwork for victory by dominating the set-pieces and the breakdowns.
Valley's scrum was under immense pressure as Club's dominant front row of Peter Spizzirri, Tom Cameron and Nigel Hobler ruled supreme, while locks Tim Griffin and Angus Washington had huge games.
Their backs capitalised on this with McKee opening the scoring by completing a slick move down the left flank. He missed the conversion, but an earlier penalty which was successful saw Club lead 8-0.
Valley trimmed it back to 8-7 when skipper Justin Temara neatly threaded a grubber past his counterpart and then dived over for the first of his side's three tries. Valley then took the lead when the pack drove over the Club line from a lineout and flanker Brent Taylor emerged with the ball in hand, to take a 12-8 lead.
Club flyhalf Pat Foreman cut the deficit to 12-11 with a sweetly taken drop-goal just before half-time, and soon after the break, the hosts regained the lead when centre Rouse bounced off two weak tackles to score under the posts.
D'Acre's unconverted try made it 23-12 after Valley lost a turnover and the lead was extended to 26-12 with another McKee penalty. A late try by Ross Armour gave Valley some hope but their chance of an upset ended when Temara knocked on as he dived for the line.
