Source:
https://scmp.com/sport/rugby/article/1512833/hong-kong-passed-chemistry-test-flying-colours
Rugby/ Fifteens

Hong Kong passed ‘chemistry test’ with flying colours

Hong Kong captain Nick Hewson leads from the front against South Korea in the Asian Five Nations: Photo: HKRFU

Sometimes as a coach, you know even before taking the field that you have a special group. It’s not something that is easy to measure or articulate – you just know. It probably has more to do with chemistry than ability. There are players on every team who can make things happen, but I think with a special group it is more about how much they are prepared to give in order to make it happen.

And from the start of last Saturday, I had a good feeling about what was going to unfold.

It began with the normal urine samples and pool recovery session at the team hotel before breakfast. When I say urine samples, I mean from both a realistic and figurative perspective. The actual testing is to ensure they are not dehydrated going into the game, and the metaphorical piss-take, something that’s always evident among a tight and special group of players.

Now it’s onwards and upwards to Japan, where we will travel with confidence and hope

Then following breakfast the group assembled for our first “spotters” meeting of game day. For those less informed rugby pundits, players (and coaches) like to cross the i’s and dot the t’s the morning of a big game just to ensure the game plan is well and truly honed in. Our group was no exception, keen to get out of the hotel and implement some final but very important small details.

With the feeling as good as it was, intuition suggested that the players, under the charge of captain Nick Hewson and other senior players – Pale Tauti, James Cooper, et al – should be trusted in running this critical part of the day. By doing so, we displayed a huge show of faith from the coaching team in letting the players know we thought they were ready for battle, and we really had little left to contribute.

Following a hearty lunch and some personal down time, the group regrouped for the jersey presentation before departing to the game. This has become an important ritual, with key members of the rugby public invited in to present the jerseys and offer a few motivational words.

For a special game, we needed a special person as they’ve been known to add that vital one or two per cent during that final phase in the build-up for the game. Enter stage right, Stephen “Horse” Nolan, the ideal man for the job. A man renowned for not using five words when four will do, but someone who when he does speak, commands respect from others.

In his position as a respected elder during what was potentially his last home international game, he pressed all the right buttons in epitomising what the group were about in being humble, with just the right measures of confidence, doubt and bloody mindedness.

The kind of spirit and camaraderie evidenced here, and later during the game, can’t be simply bought or demanded from the coach, it’s a player thing, and a consequence of spending time in the trenches with trusted allies towards a common goal.

To use a well-worn cliché, it wasn’t just win over South Korea, but the manner of the victory that sits so well. The team had to weather a torrid and largely expected opening onslaught by the Koreans, even going down to 14 men at one point through an uncharacteristic “red mist” moment by Jake Phelps, but managing to hang on before turning the tables on the opposition.

It was Jake himself who went from villain to hero in grabbing the first scoring opportunity, a try that was made even sweeter as it came straight off the training paddock with Chris McAdam deserving a lot of credit for his expertly executed chip or “worm” in team parlance. This set the tone, putting us in pole position after 20-25 minutes. The rest, as they say, is history, with some outstanding contributions in both attack and defence.

I would also like to acknowledge others’ contribution in accepting that results like this are more far reaching than the starting 23 or even the 32-man squad. This result is for, and about, the whole Hong Kong community, a unique and inextricably linked rugby family where successes like this reflect on everyone within.

Whether it be women’s or community, schools or youth, all have had their part to play along the way and should be acknowledged and congratulated accordingly for their contribution. Now it’s onwards and upwards to Japan, where we will travel with confidence and hope while also being aware it is an even larger mountain to climb.