THE balance of power in Hong Kong rugby's First Division has shifted. After three long seasons, Valley lost for the first time to arch-rivals Football Club in a league match. Marshalled brilliantly by new fly-half Chris Yates, Club enjoyed a 14-9 win in yesterday's Foster's Premiership action. The victory was possibly the beginning of the end of Valley's three-year reign as league champions. Valley player-coach, centre Rodney McIntosh, said before the start of the league that the 1997-98 season would be a re-building process. Valley's foundations are shaky - they were not able to sustain any attack simply because they lost the ball in the tackle. Valley's other player-coach, forward Stuart Krohn, rued this lapse. 'We made many errors at critical times when we needed to convert all that possession,' he said. There was little joy for the Valley supporters in the large crowd at Happy Valley, as they watched their team struggle in vain to find a way past a committed defence. Their best chance came at the end when centre Isi Tu'ivai made a superb break, but then tried to do too much by attempting to round Club winger Rory Dixon. Dixon nailed Tu'ivai, who had only to look inside for support. If he had done so, Club might have spent last night wondering how the game was lost from a winning position. They slipped up against Kowloon last week, losing steam and concentration in the final quarter. This time they stuck to their task and finished strongly with the forwards right on top. Openside flanker Rob McDonald was the pick of the pack. The solitary try in the match was scored from a sweeping move from the Club backs, with new full-back Ben Thomas, red shoes and all, joining the line to create an overlap before sending winger Alan Warner over. Fly-half Yates missed the conversion but he won the battle of the place-kickers yesterday, putting over three penalties for a 50 per cent success rate. His counterpart, John Nihill, could manage only three out of eight attempts. Meanwhile, Aberdeen meet Kowloon at King's Park (3.30pm) today. The Union, which wants to showcase top-level rugby, will schedule a First Division game once a month to coincide with a mini-rugby festival. DeA, who had a bye yesterday, made a lightning border incursion at Shenzhen, where they beat the Chinese national squad 62-5. China used the match as a build-up to their first international, against Singapore on November 1. Football Club will take up the role of Hong Kong rugby ambassadors next week.
