Sandy Bay U14 Boys crowned Premiership champions

Sandy Bay U14 Boys closed out their premiership season with a spotless record in a win against Sai Kung Stingrays.

With the Stingrays showing up at Sandy Bay with a bare minimum of 15 players, they were always going to struggle against a rambunctious Sandy Bay side who were set to be crowned league champions regardless of the outcome of their last game.
The first half started with a bang for Sandy Bay with a converted try within the first five minutes, and continued relatively fluidly. The break saw the various changes that led not only to a disruption in the game's rhythm but also the odd sight of blue-shirted Sandy Bay players playing competitively against their white-shirted counterparts.
Ultimately, the result of the game was 47-19 in Sandy Bay's favour, and ended with the Sandy Bay captain turning out for Stingrays and scoring their last try. Aside from captain Donnacha , Sandy Bay loaned several players to the Stingrays as the physicality of the Sandy Bay boys saw three of the Stingrays players taken off the field, injured, during different parts in the game.
In the end, the margin of victory was not as important as the fact that the win marked the 10th win for the boys out of 10, each with a bonus point. The team ended with a maximum 50 points, and a points differential of 276.

That result saw this year's cohort emulate their peers from last season who achieved the same feat in the same age category (U14s). Those two sets of boys are set to join up together in the U16s year group next season in what promises to be a mouth-watering amalgamation, merging two of Sandy Bay's strongest cohorts in recent years.

Coach Bill Brant deserves huge credit for leading this group of U14s to such a remarkable season despite losing a few of his leading players from last season. In Bill's own words, in this his 12th year of coaching at the Club, the boys have every reason to be proud of themselves as it is very rare indeed to go through a season as undefeated champions.

Looking back at the season, the boys played with grit, determination and also enjoyed their share of luck. Notable moments include their first game against Valley Fort in which full-back Mengli made a try-saving tackle that not only stopped his opponent, but put the wind back in his team’s sails to see them snatch victory at the death. Two hard-fought games, played back-to-back against a strong Peninsula Barbarians also marked a turning point in the season when they boys crossed the finish line in both matches as narrow victors. Finally, in the penultimate game against HKFC, Sandy Bay—with a number of first-team players missing—played ugly and also quite poorly as compared to their usual standards, luckily winning 22-17.

They end the postponed Premiership season in mid-January 2020, excitedly looking forward to the 10s and 7s matches to follow, and also to the next 15-a-side season. Aside from those players already mentioned, special mention must also go to Matthew who scored a hatful of the team’s tries, Kurtis whose goal kicking made the difference between victory and defeat, as well the two boys from Macau—Fabio and Tiago—who were staunch in their match attendance, not to mention impact on the pitch.

Naub