A rampant DeA Tigers outfit ran in nine tries as they swept aside Shanghai Sports Institute 62-0 to begin their Asian Dragons Inter City Series campaign on a high note in Shanghai yesterday. The match was so one-sided, the referee called it off 10 minutes before the end.
'It was a bit of a hiding,' conceded DeA official Chris Meads afterwards. 'The no-contest forced the referee to call it off with 10 minutes to go and we were quite happy to accept that decision.'
Appearing for the first time in the ADICS competition, DeA played with gay abandon as they ran in tries from all corners of the field to easily overcome what are the weakest opponents in the five-team tournament which also includes fellow-Hong Kong team CBRE Club. The other two mainland sides in the competition are PLA Sports Institute and Chinese Agricultural University.
For DeA's new player-coach Nigel Clarke, the outing was the opportunity to see a number of players in action for the first time, and also his first taste of Chinese opposition. 'To their credit they never gave up. But we had a good side out and we just ran at them and worked them around the field. This game gave me the chance to see some of the younger players in our squad and I'm pleased with what I saw. You can't ask for more than a 62-0 win,' said Englishman Clarke, a former Rosslyn Park flanker.
DeA captain and No8 Seni Seruvakula led the charge to the try-line grabbing a brace while Fijian flanker Tokoni Luvu, Andrew Chambers, Chan Fuk-ping, Hiroshi Kubota, Liu Kwok-leung, Mike Nui and Ivan Zenovic scored a try each.
'This was a good building block to our season. Since joining DeA, I have been hearing a lot of 'rumours' as to who should be in the squad. Today, I saw for myself what we have. While I would like a little bit more depth in a few areas, we have a good squad,' Clarke added.