DB Pirates-South Lantau Buffaloes girls win Kim Lam Cup
Hong Kong’s top girls rugby trophy, the Kim Lam Cup, came home to Lantau after a Pirates and Buffaloes combined team out-fought Football Club in a nail-biting season-ending final.
At Football Club’s home pitch in Happy Valley, the DBP-SLB Under-12 girls battled to win the game 5 tries to 4 to hand a dominant Club team their first loss of the season and claim the Cup. The Pirates’ last Kim Lam Cup win was 8 years ago in 2014.
This result looked very unlikely earlier in the day as the girls’ lost their first round-robin game against Football Club by 5-1. However, they found their gear and smashed subsequent wins against Valley (6-1) and Tigers (5-1) to secure their place in the final against Football Club.
Meanwhile, the DBP-SLB second team had been competing in a tough second tier, narrowly missing the chance for silverware, but finishing with a strong win over a Sai Kung Stingrays – Tigers team. Many of the players will have another chance at the U12 trophy next season.
In the cup final, the players put in an outstanding team performance to win an exciting, high quality game in which the lead changed 5 times. The first half was end-to-end with FC ahead 2-1 at half time. In the 2nd half our players dominated territory and possession, and pushed into a 4-3 lead, only for FC to equalise with 1 minute left to play, before Emily Brems ran in the last try to seal the win.
MVP was awarded to Emily Brems, who only joined the Pirates and started playing rugby in March last year. Emily put in a top all-round performance, working hard for her team with strong tackles and rucking, all with a huge smile on her face. She scored 8 tries in the tournament, 4 in the final as Football Club struggled to cope with her dynamic runs.
Lynn Zhang scored the other try in the final for a total of 3 tournament tries, while there were tries for Rachel Pearce (3 tries), Midori Tatebe, Tasha Batchelor and Cecily Gray in the other games.
A big thank you goes to Head Coach and Team Manager Tom Grainger all other Coaches and parents who have trained and supported the players throughout this challenging season and their whole mini-rugby journey.
