Sandy Bay win Hong Kong grand final championship in thrilling fashion
- Down and out for most of the season, Herbert Smith Freehills HKU Sandy Bay cap off a remarkable run to win the grand final
- The first-year club spent the early part of the regular season rock-bottom
Herbert Smith Freehills HKU Sandy Bay’s storybook season has ended in thrilling fashion.
As the rain poured down on King’s Park and the seconds ticked away, the upstart club held off a late surge from Bloomberg HK Scottish to win the grand final of the men’s premiership season 26-23 on Saturday.
Up by three in the dying seconds of the game, Sandy Bay capped off a remarkable run that started with them in the basement of the league, and now sees them sipping champagne from the play-off trophy.
Coach Brett Wilkinson said Scottish gave them a serious run for the championship in what was a wet, rough, back and forth contest in which the Scottish side led for substantial portions of the game.
“We were under huge pressure, and the boys just stuck at it,” said Wilkinson, the second-year head coach. “It wasn’t good for the heart, and this game could have gone either way and they could have easily scored at the end there and we would have been on the other side of the results.”
It was in the 76th minute that the dream season for the former Hong Kong Cricket Club side started to feel like a reality. That’s when No 8 Luke van der Smit scored, giving Sandy Bay a late lead and sending the crowd into a frenzy.