Reigning champions of the G4S Domestic League Division 1, Hong Kong Football Club Rugby (HKFC Rugby) team captain recalled last year’s epic Grand Premiership Final, after the traditional season warm-up match against Singapore last weekend.
Dan Watson:
HKFC’s 1st XV’s captain for last year, Dan Watson, 31, explained how Singapore had hosted the previous two years and that “it is the first time we have hosted while I have been here”.
“I was in Hong Kong just 13 hours and I was down at HKFC. I’ve been playing for two full years in Hong Kong and this is the start of the third season.
Back in the UK, “I captain my university team and later a local team in UK.
“At HKFC I was captain in my second year and if I get the opportunity, I will do it again.
“The match against Singapore went well.
“Counter rucking was very strong; it is certainly an area we need to work on before we head into the start of the season. I’m not going to get too emotional about how the result turned at the end. The reality is we came to this game wanting to test ourselves. We chose not to kick the penalties. So we were playing a set piece every time. When they had a player sent off, I said to the referee that we want to play against 15 players. And they were allowed to exchange a player. We lost by 1, but we got a lot to take out of the game.
“We have been working very, very hard on our defence to make sure we have got an aggressive defence and that was showing through. Our fitness was very good. There were no real injuries when we walked off so that was a positive.
“We can start again on Monday [Sept. 20] and focus on the first game of the season and we will turn out a very aggressive progressive 22 players.
“There were a couple of players who played exceptionally well. Our starting hooker, Tom, was exceptional and moved into the back row. And Adam who scored two break-away tries—exceptional pace on him. Those were the two standout players.
“Generally speaking, we came out with 28 players. Some of the boys were new to Hong Kong—learning their position it’s good to have them involved.
“Our counter ruck was our weak point—something to work on. That’s not a difficult thing to train for. The forwards will get a good shouting out on Monday.
“We’ll just keep focussing on our aggressive defence. I’m not walking away thinking we had a shocking result. We played the right formula and we just have to keep focussing on our game plan.
“We haven’t done one scrummaging session in all pre-season. Our foundation is fantastic and a key for us. A lot of us have been playing together for three years now.
“Season is two weeks away. That’s our marker in the sand. Our first match is against Kowloon.”
