Knights walk away with gut-wrenching draw

In a match that would decide the early season favouritism for the 2020/21 Prem A league, the 'Battle of the Causeway" was always going to be a tight affair where, if the Knights got their attitude right, walking away with a W over Club was a distinct possibility. Unfortunately, after two and a half minutes, Dragons had converted their first try to take a 7 - 0 lead.

However, this would be the last time the the Knights trailed in the entire match as we shared possession stakes, showed aggression in the tackle, held our own at scrum time and built phase after phase to allow the fleet-footed Fogerty to storm over for the Knights first try in the 13th minute. Siya Alam had his radar on again and the scores were level 7-apiece.

As both teams battled it out for the next 25 minutes and the Knights suffering not one but two broken noses to Rob VHD and Jude Cooper, it looked like both teams would head for the sheds even on the scoreboard. But with momentum growing, the Knights camped in the Drags red zone for the final few minutes of the half, held composure phase after phase and in front of the Sportmans Bar faithful, nippy Katsu ducked under the Drags defense to dot down under the posts and radar-lugs Siya Alam slotted the conversion for a deserved 14 - 7 half time lead.

The second half mirrored the first with Drags scoring a converted try to level the score, 14 - 14 in the 57th minute. But the Knights response would be immediate as super-sub, Macca, who had only just come on as halfback, joined the Knights lineout drive to score in the corner. 19 - 14 to the Knights and up steps Siya - can he put the icing on the cake? The score remained 19 - 14 with ten minutes remaining.

With momentum and possession, the Knights were building, but a couple of breakdown penalties and a 'team yellow card' to Badders saw the Drags camp in the Knights red zone for the final five minutes. And with time up on the clock, could we force a mistake... the Drags score an unconverted try in the 71st minute. Head Coach Scotty Davidson was both pleased and disappointed. "I think we did do enough to have a win there. It's obviously hard for the boys, they worked bloody hard in patches there, especially in defense, and managed to hold them out. So it's annoying to let them in right on full-time, but the character and the attitude of the boys was outstanding, so it's really something to build on going forward and I think we are building something really special with this group".

Final score: 19 - 19

MATCH SUMMARY
01.36: 5 - 0 HKFC Try
02.35: 7 - 0 HKFC Conversion
13.30: 7 - 5 TRY Rob FOGERTY
15.00: 7 - 7 CONVERSION Siya ALAM
37.00: 7 - 12 TRY Katsuya FUKUNAGA
38.00: 7 14 CONVERSION Siya ALAM
56.00: 12 - 14 HKFC Try
57.00: 14 - 14 HKFC Conversion
59.00: 14 - 19 TRY Mark MCMILLAN
71.00: 19 - 19 HKFC Try