Hong Kong Rugby Round-Up: Scottish Take Top of the Table

Our match reports from the weekend’s Hong Kong club rugby, where Scottish claimed sole possession of first place and Kowloon recorded a surprise win.

Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish staked sole claim on first place in the RugbyPass.com Premiership after collecting a bonus point 34-22 win over Natixis HKFC at Sports Road. Societe Generale Valley, co-leaders ahead of today’s round, couldn’t keep pace with Scottish on the table or on the scoreboard, as they fought off a determined Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers challenge, 15-10, in Happy Valley.

In the RugbyPass.com Game of the Week, Kowloon showed its surprise win over Valley last week wasn’t a fluke after beating Herbert Smith Freehills HKCC 20-10 at Aberdeen, wresting the Broony Quaich, Hong Kong Rugby’s Ranfurly Shield style trophy, away from the hosts.

A willingness to attack, the creativity and drive of fly half Jack Neville, and the class of former England international Olly Barkley saw Kowloon land its third win on the trot.

For coach James Scaysbrook, it was the first time in his two seasons at the club that it has held the Broony Quaich. The Quaich was donated to the HKRU by Kowloon in 2013.

“It’s nice to get one of the traditional trophies in the competition,” he said.

“He was equally pleased to get the club’s fourth win on the season – and third on the trot, “We’ve got that bit of momentum now with three wins in a row and its important that we continue to progress.”

It was Kowloon who looked the more switched on in the opening stages, with their backs showing a willingness to run with the ball at every opportunity. Some enterprising passing saw them create some early try-scoring chances but it took a Neville penalty to get them on the board.

The visitors threatened to break the HKCC line several times in the first half, but their first try came off a driving maul with James Sawyer scoring and Neville adding the extras to make the score 10-0.

Despite their lack of scoring opportunities, a positive for HKCC was the dominance shown by their forward pack in the scrum. With Rohan Cook and Amo Tauialo working hard, the strength of the HKCC forwards earned their side a penalty try late in the opening half. James Love’s conversion saw the home side trail 10-7 at the break.

“When we have five line breaks and give the ball immediately away, one of those being a seven-point turnaround, that’s going to cost you,” HKCC coach Kevin West said.

The seven-point turnaround touched on by West was the most exciting play of the match, with HKCC’s Mark Prior splitting the Kowloon defence early in the second half. But Prior gave the ball up to Kowloon’s Neville, who charged forward before releasing Thomas Bury.

Bury was set to score before Love’s lunging tackle knocked the ball loose, but the HKCC fullback caught Bury high, resulting in a penalty try and a yellow card to Love.

With the score at 17-7 the visitors were in control and although Sawyer followed Love to the sin bin soon after, Kowloon managed to stretch their lead to 13 points through another Neville penalty.

Love dragged HKCC back to 20-10 with a quarter to go, but Kowloon managed to bottle it up from there, defending well on the back of some brilliant exit kicks from Barkley.

“I’m definitely pleased. The process wasn’t perfect but we ground out a win, which is very important at this stage,” Scaysbrook said.

Valley avoided a second defeat in as many weeks after holding off a late surge from Tigers. The first half saw both sides play to a standstill with the score 3-3 at the break, courtesy of penalties from fly halves Ben Rimene for Valley and Liam Gallaher for Tigers; both penalties came in the last three minutes of the opening stanza.

In the second half, Valley consistently expanded their lead with four straight penalties from Rimene giving the hosts a twelve-point advantage, 15-3, entering the final quarter. Tigers No.8 John Hrstich gave his side hope when he crashed over the line in the 75th minute to close the gap to within a try after Gallaher’s conversion as the visitors trailed 15-10 but time ran out on the comeback effort.

The action at Hong Kong Football Club was decidedly more free flowing, with Club and HK Scottish combining for 37 points after the first forty minutes, albeit most of the scoring was in Scottish’s favour.

Nate DeTheirry, one of five development squad players from Super Rugby side Gallagher Chiefs playing in the Premiership this season, put his new team on the board in the opening minutes with a penalty. DeTheirry converted a penalty try in injury time of the first half to bring Football Club’s total to 10 points at the break. His efforts book-ended 27 unanswered points from Scottish, with fly half Gregor McNeish accounting for 22 of those, pushing him over 100 points on the season (107), with the next highest scorer, Kowloon’s Neville, more than 40 points behind on 63.

McNeish’s streak began in the 15th minute when he converted his own try to put Scottish on the board. He added a penalty in the 38th minute before converting tries from fullback Jarrod Mongston and captain Kane Boucaut, his second in two weeks, as Scottish built what looked to be an unassailable 27-10 lead at the half.

Football Club came roaring out of the break with centre Ben Axten-Burrett crossing over for Club’s second try and prop Leon Wei Hon-sum adding a third shortly thereafter. De Thierry struck Axten-Burrett’s conversion but missed Wei’s, closing the gap to 22-27.

Hong Kong prop Jack Parfitt eased Scottish back into the lead in the 70th minute when he finished off a surging forwards move to collect the bonus point try. McNeish’s conversion was good putting Scottish in the clear, 34-22.

“It was a good win,” said Scottish coach Craig Hammond. “We still have a lot to work on and I don’t like giving up leads like that, but credit to the boys for coming away with the bonus point from their place against a strong team,” added Hammond.

The result sees Scottish take sole possession of first place ahead of Valley. Both sides boast six wins against two losses, but today’s bonus point was the difference, putting Scottish in first on 28 points with Valley slipping to an unaccustomed second spot on 27. Kowloon leapfrogged HKCC to take third place on the table with 17. HKCC are on 14 points but have a game in hand with fifth ranked HKFC (12 points) after the postponement of their match last week. Tigers are in sixth on ten points.