The most noteworthy feature last night at Happy Valley was the sight of Hong Kong Pacific Rim captain and No 8 Paul Dingley taking the goal kicks. Valley's 71-6 win over the PLA Sports Institute will leave little for the imagination. As one would have expected, it was entirely one-way traffic as the defending league champions went on a try-scoring spree, running in 11 tries to crush the mainlanders. And Dingley, when he was not making his trademark bursts from the base of the scrum, spent his spare time taking the conversions after regular goal-kicker Carl Murray was substituted at half-time. Is Dingley pursuing a new role? Or was it just something extra to do. After all, the opposition last night was nothing really much to worry about. But even he got tired of the repetitious nature of the opportunities coming his way. And after an initial 100 per cent success rate, knocking over his first three attempts, Dingley got tired. He missed two more kicks at goal, before handing over this onerous duty to Valley captain Rodney McIntosh, who duly converted Valley's 11th try. By then the match was of academic interest. The PLA had been given the hard lesson of what an organised side could do to their defence. Five days ago, the PLA defeated Valley's second stringers 28-6 to notch their first win in the Super Eights competition. Last night, it was a return to reality. More of the same is in store for the PLA tomorrow when they meet Kowloon. But the huge defeats and scorelines will not matter for the Chinese. They are on a learning mission and can only benefit from such exposure. As for Valley, it was a chance to stretch their legs and get the rhythm going. Luciano Afeaki, Ben Scott and Grant Beuzeval got a brace of tries each. Andrew Spraggon, Dingley, Brent Edwards, Nimal Gunewardena and McIntosh also got on the scorecard. For the PLA, Yu Yang converted two penalties. JMC Kowloon received a walkover from Club Dragons last night. The Football Club second stringers failed to raise a team, running short mostly in the front row. It is understood that the Dragons could not field a side because a number of their players were due to take part in the Trailwalker. Kowloon, one of the favourites to win the league this season, remain unbeaten so far, but were worried that the opportunity to grab a bonus point had slipped by. 'It would have been nice to have got a bonus point from this game. It may come in useful at the end of the season,' said skipper Nigel D'Acre. Dragons had asked Kowloon for a postponement, but the request was turned down.
