10's with the Tai Po Dragons

We played the ladies from Tai Po yesterday and won by 54-0. Their coach wanted to call the game early with five minutes left but the ladies insisted on finishing it out. For that, and for their classy playing, they have earned my high regard and respect. Even though the score was demoralizing, they never let their heads down and played all the way through.

There were several factors that led to our victory. First, after the defeat we handed to ourselves with Football Club we were set to battle our hardest. The dragons also had posted an impressive 10's season so we took them seriously and trained to give them our best, which we did. Their team also only had 10 players and no subs, which meant that some ladies who were hurt (not injured, but hurt) in the game had to stay on the pitch.

They had some good plays and very smart kicks that they almost were able to capitalize on. There were definitely some moments where it looked like they would break through and we had to scramble to recover. In the end the dragons were unable to finish their plays or capitalize on the opportunities that we presented them with some of our mistakes, but they played hard and forced us to play hard also.

My only big criticism was that their scrum was bad. There was no engagement with us, but instead they leaned into us before the ref called the engagement. With no offered push, and no clean engagement we were forced to hold them up at times, and other times we ran over them. On the last contested scrum of the game we hit them and their scrum fell over but our side was still standing in the crouched position. It was strange. After that, we went uncontested.

I was chosen to be captain at this game and I hoped that I served my team well. I was very, very pleased with our play. I hope that we take this into practice on Tuesday and keep building up to our eventual rematch with Football Club. We also have stiff competition with Tradition Valley and Aberdeen/Kowloon.

But a big thank you to the ref who kept the game smooth and moving. And a big thank you to the Tai Po Lady Dragons.

Comments