21st October - Club Day

21ST OCT SOCIETE GENERALE VALLEY RFC

CLUB DAYS ARE HAPPY DAYS

This weekend sees the first of five Club Days played at our home pitch this season, and after a lengthy break from Happy Valley Pitch 6 - it is good to be back!

Four out of six teams are home and involved with Club Day this weekend as we welcome Sandy Bay who will be taking on our Valley RFC Mens Premiership and Knights teams in what will be hotly contested fixtures.

Our Men’s Premiership will be looking for their first win of the season, whilst our Knights will be looking to continue their winning momentum from a Kowloon victory.

The day will kick off with our Mavericks taking on HKFC Scorpions and will finish with our Womens Premiership taking on Causeway Bay. Elsewhere across Hong Kong, our Reds will be looking on to build from last weeks win and have a fixture against Police, whilst the Griff-MaiJais will be playing Sandy Bay. Special shout out to Rory Young for collecting his 50th cap for the mighty Red and Black!

Saturday 21st October

CLUB DAY 1:00 Societe Generale Valley RFC Mavericks v HKFC 2:45 Societe GeneraleValley RFC Mens Prem v Sandy Bay 4:30 Societe Generale Valley RFC Knights v Sandy Bay 6:15 Societe GeneraleValley RFC Womens Prem v Causeway Bay

Things to look out for at Club Day: Societe Generale Valley RFC Scoreboard

Valley RFC Pop Up Shop

Societe Generale Kicking Posts Station

Valley Fort Ball Team and Cheer Squad

Food and Beverage Station

Saturday is a rugby day and after a year long absence, we are finally back home. We would like to invite everyone down to celebrate, share a drink, and watch some rugby. This Saturday is our first of five club day’s this season. So come support and cheer on the Men’s and Women’s Prems, Knights, and Mavericks. Let’s go Valley!!!

CHAIRMANS MESSSAGE

ROUND 2 V KOWLOON

WRAP UP Loss 11 - 8

Tough evening for the Men Premiership, as they left Kings Park last Friday with defeat to Kowloon.

We shot off the blocks to a tidy 8-3 lead with a great team build up leading to new winger Viliame Naivalu getting his first dot for the season, however after 25 minutes, momentum shifted and Kowloon began packing on a strong territorial game.

Persistent kicking down field by Kowloon, made it hard for our men to get out of their own half and capitalise on the slender lead.

Valley legend Ben Rimene managed to pull off a full 80 minutes, considering 3 weeks ago there was no intention to play, however in true Valley fashion he has stepped up to the mark and steered the ship in the fly half role.

Our stronghold up front in the likes of Luke Dewar and Nyasha Tarusenga continued with their gritting ways and put in a solid shift, however the win wasn’t to come as Kowloon closed the evening with an 11-8 point finish.

With two initial losses, the team will be looking to rebuild the squad back to its winning ways against Sandy Bay this week.

v Sandy Bay

1

Thomas Concu

2

Luke Dewar

3

Faizal Solomona Penesa

4

Justin Beese

5

Zinny Hansen

6

Nyasha Tarusenga

7

James Cunningham

8

Sion Bennett (c)

9

Katsu Fukunaga

10

Ben Rimene

11

Viliame Naivalu

12

Elden Schoeman

13

Henry Shiell

14

Harry Sayers

15

Luke Treharne

16

Nicholas Brown

17

Rory Young

18

Barend Potgeiter

19

Dom Hegglin

20

James Honey

21

Alistair Stacey

22

Huw Alexander

23

Thaddeus Summers

THE TEAM

v Causeway Bay

THE TEAM

Leung, Wing Yan Andrea

1

Tanya Dhar

2

Kea Herewini (C)

3

Adrienne Davis

4

Chan, Wing Yan Alexa

5

Rosie Inglis

6

Riva Brill

7

Tiffany Fu

8

Au Shu Wan

9

Wong, Yi Tung Lewis

10

Tyler Both

11

Katrina Roszynski

12

Rumeng, Wu Aislin

13

Zoe Smith

14

Nadia Cuvelier

15

Chan, Yin Ting Edith

16

Karen So

17

So, Wing Tung Tamika

18

Sonia Chandiramani

19

Wong, Choi Ying Claudia

20

Sabrina Chung

21

Ella Lynam

22

Mary Sieker

23

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT Coach Turtles words

The Mavericks start the 2023/24 season with a mouthwatering clash against their 2023 Grand Championship Final opponents HKFC Scorpions. The game is likely to set the tone for the respective seasons of these two old rivals, both or which are widely expected to set the pace in the Championship.

The Mavericks, once again ably led by Ben Campbell, will be missing a number of familiar faces for following: the retirements of Trey Deaver and Victor Martin (at the ripe old age of 25!); the departure of Wyler Wong; and long term injuries to Josh Burnside, Dan Hodgetts, Aljon Grospe. Offsetting these losses will be the introduction of new recruits Christo Smit, Steve Safarowic, Louis Destombe, Dennis Hung and Matt Zirps, along with the welcome return of Tim Che, Nelson Chan and Arthur Monnet.

Built on the solid foundations of seasoned campaigners Brendan Dunstan Smith, Peter Yau, Rion Yeh, Lukas Lai, Kiwa Whatarau, Kin Chong, Brandt Human, Paul Wessles, Gwylim Richards, Adrien Marie-Francoise and Carel Swanepoel spiced up with the exuberance of youth supplied by Olly McDermott, Jack Lamming, Baptiste Nallet and Jeff Tse the Mavericks are looking to play entertaining rugby and contend for Silverware again this season.

MAVERICKS

from the archives - club days

POSITION Loose Head Prop

YEARS AT VALLEY 6

WHY VALLEY Close affiliation with Medusa

RORY YOUNG

ADVICE FOR SOMEONE JOINING V Work hard, play hard culture

MOST MEMORABLE RUGBY EXPERIENCE Promotion to National One with Bishops Stortford RFC.

ANY PLAYER FOR THE TEAM Moon Dog. Never short of supplies

SUPERHERO FOR THE TEAM The Flash. Quick init

2 TRUTHS 1 LIE I’ve never been shocked by Carl Marks I’ve eaten 10 double cheeseburgers in 10 minutes I have a license to carry a Shotgun in the UK

POSITION Lock

YEARS AT VALLEY WHY VALLEY Anita brought me to the pitch after just one week in Hong Kong- I have been with the club ever since

PRE GAME ROUTINE I play loud, angry music and get my hair braided

SUPERHERO FOR THE TEAM Scarlet witch- can't beat the power to alter reality

POST GAME ROUTINE Love to spend some time in the sauna or getting a massage

ANY PLAYER FOR THE TEAM Portia Woodman- what a beast!

TWO TRUTHS ONE LIE I have given someone a tattoo I've flown in a helicopter I know how to pick locks

ADRIENNE DAVIS

7 Years

Pl

W

D

L

PF

PA

PD

Pts

HKU Sandy Bay RFC

2

2

0

0

64

26

38

10

DAC Kowloon RFC

2

2

0

0

55

37

18

9

HKFC Natixis Club

2

2

0

0

43

18

25

8

KPMG HK Scottish RFC

2

0

0

2

33

45

-12

1

Societe Generale Valley RFC

2

0

0

2

16

40

-24

1

Kroll USRC Tigers

2

0

0

2

32

77

-45

0

HKCR LEAGUE TABLE

#heretohelp is a wellbeing project that aims to bring together the Valley community to talk about mental health and share resources and techniques to support each other in our mental health journeys.

HERE TO HELP

SHINING THE SPOTLIGHT ON My name is Jess, and I head up The New Normal (TNN), an NGO dedicated to supporting adults through life’s difficult moments.

This journey started when I struggled to cope with the loss of my Dad and faced challenges accessing mental health support. At TNN we understand that life can be hard, and sometimes it’s difficult to find someone who truly understands and empathises with what you’re going through - nobody should feel alone no matter how they feel.

It is our mission to create supportive spaces. We do this by offering free peer-to-peer support groups in Cantonese and English to all people seeking to explore their grief, mental health, and well-being in an environment where they feel supported and heard.

We also provide activity-based group classes, free for those in financial hardship, as we recognise that taking care of our physical health can positively impact our mental well-being. Finally, we collaborate with different communities and create an inclusive platform to share thoughts, stories, and support.

What common mental health issues have you noticed in Hong Kong, and how does that relate to the way in which The New Normal has developed its services?

People who come to our peer support groups talk about their struggles, communicating what they are going through, especially with family, and bridging the gap between generations. Everyone talks about financial stress, which encompasses so many things.

Younger people worry about academic achievement so that they can achieve financial success. Hong Kong is a costly place to live, and consequently, people often have to share homes with others, meaning they don’t have much privacy.

There is a real emphasis on working hard and less on emotional, psychological, and social support in the workplace. Wellbeing at work is seen as a workplace benefit rather than a given. In our grief groups, people talk about being forced back into work after a traumatic loss. There are a lot of unhealthy work cultures because of competition and the pressure to achieve.

On the finance topic, private mental health care is often expensive, wait times for the public system are long, and workplace health insurance may only cover psychiatry and not broader mental health services. These challenges leave people with not much choice about what to do. Further compounding this, many people have no idea where to go to get help. Or how to find services that fit their identity and income bracket.

How could people get involved, either volunteering or offering financial support?

If you are open to discussing your experiences with your mental health, grief, or challenging life events, please come to our free, open peer support groups and share. We need spaces to host our peer support groups and activity-based group classes. We are always looking for volunteers! So if you’d like to become a peer support group host, have special skills to support a small organisation, or maybe you’re a fitness professional who could lead an activity-based class. We would love to hear from you!

We are running a crowdfunding campaign to cover our launch costs, and we are incredibly grateful for every donation. We are a small organisation driven entirely by volunteers. email jess@thenewnormalcharity.com

instagram @tnnhongkong

www.thenewnormalcharity.com

WITH THANKS Societe Generale Valley RFC would like to acknowledge and express sincere thanks and gratitude to our sponsors and partners.

Thank you to our Title Sponsor Societe Generale, and our primary sponsors TV5 Monde, Mayer Brown, Bonaqua, Swire Properties, Links Moving, BFT and the Happy Valley Bar and Grill. As well as our product sponsors ONLY Beverages and Metabev.

@sgvalleyrfc

valleyrfc

Valley RFC

www.valleyrfc.com