Pitch blackout increases burden on facilities for HKRFU ahead of new season

A severed underground power cable near the rugby pitch at Happy Valley has put further strain on the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union's bid to provide its ever-increasing membership with sufficient facilities on which to train and play - and thrown off-kilter the preparations of last season's championship winners, WhichWay Valley.

The league season starts on Saturday, but the newly laid artificial Valley pitch is out of commission until the end of this month as the broken cable means the floodlights don't work. With five new teams this season in senior rugby - men's and women's - spread across eight divisions, this has placed more pressure on the provision of grounds by the HKRFU.

"It is big blow that the Valley pitch is unavailable," said HKRFU chairman Trevor Gregory. "Some contractor digging inside the Happy Valley racecourse accidentally cut through the power cables resulting in a blackout around the pitch. Hopefully, we will get it back soon."

Gregory said 74 teams would feature in a crowded fixture list every Saturday.

"We are victims of our own success. Every season more players and more clubs take the field and we have to find more grounds for them, not only to play, but to train also," Gregory said. "We are appreciative that the government [Leisure and Cultural Services Department] has been very helpful and we know they also have to look after other sports. But the biggest issue in Hong Kong is that we need more space for recreation and sport."

Valley's player-coach Nick Hewson admitted: "This has disrupted our pre-season training as we have had to split club trainings and have teams train at different venues and times based on pitch availability. "We appreciate all of the LCSD's efforts in trying to fix the problem and look forward to the lights being repaired soon."