Hong Kong Rugby Wrap: Kowloon Edge Scottish, Valley Go Top

All the action from the weekend’s HKRU RugbyPass.com Men’s Premiership.

Borelli Walsh USRC Tigers vs Natixis HKFC

GOW Bloomberg HK Scottish vs Kowloon

Herbert Smith Freehills HKCC vs Societe Generale Valley

In possibly the most enthralling round of the RugbyPass.com Men’s Premiership thus far this season, Societe Generale Valley landed a momentous come-from-behind 31-29 victory over Herbert Smith Freehills HKCC at Aberdeen.

Kowloon snuck home by the narrowest of margins with an 18-17 win over Bloomberg HK Scottish, while Natixis HKFC smashed Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers 42-17.

Valley regained top spot with their unlikely victory, snatching the lead late through a Tiger Bax try and a Ben Rimene conversion after at one point trailing 20-3.

“Credit to them, coming straight at us, 20 points to three lead, which they deserved,” Valley coach Andrew Kelly said.

“To come back and win the game was great, but we really need to assess why we gave so many points away and so easily. We’ve got a few injuries and we can’t get that consistency that we’re looking for, but we’ll get there.”

A manic HKCC had Valley on the hop early, with the hosts’ pressure at the breakdown proving decisive as they skipped out to a 13-3 lead after 20 minutes.

After Valley fly half Ben Rimene had opened the scoring with a penalty, HKCC fullback James Love followed up with two of his own.

It was a Liam Slatem charge down that led to HKCC’s first try, with Robbie MacDonald capitalising on the scrum half’s good work to touch down.

The home side maintained its intensity and for periods in the first half Valley looked genuinely rattled.

Slatem continued to exert his influence on proceedings and stretched the margin when he crossed on 30 minutes, with Love’s conversion taking the score to 20-3.

When Valley stalwart Nick Hewson was sent to the sin-bin with HKCC in attack in the dying stages of the first half, an increase in the deficit looked on the cards.

However a handling error by the hosts enabled Valley to break, with Ally Maclay putting the finishing touches on a sublime piece of play.

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Rimene was wayward with the conversion, leaving HKCC with a 20-8 lead at the break.

Valley showed far more stability in the second half, controlling play early as Rimene and Love each booted a penalty.

Hewson re-entered the fray with a bang, barging over after some sustained attacking from Valley, allowing Rimene to convert and trim the margin to just five points.

As the lights came on, both sides continued to concede penalties, with the score moving along to 29-21.

When HKCC lost MacDonald to a yellow card, Rimene slotted the resultant penalty, pulling Valley back to within five points as the clock ticked down.

It was Valley who were finishing the match with more gusto – at one point crossing only to be held up by a determined HKCC line – and eventually they found the score they needed.

Cricket Club coach Kevin West identified plenty of positives in the match despite his side suffering another close loss.

“We are happy with a lot of what we saw, particularly in that first half,” West said.

“It was a battleground and we lost a lot of players throughout the course of the match, so to still be there at the death is great testament to the guys. Obviously we went a bit off script, we had the opportunities to close out that game and made the wrong decisions and in the end that is what cost us.”

The clash between Kowloon and Scottish got off to a slow start, with a successful Jack Neville penalty the only score in the first half hour.

Both sides refused to give an inch and were unable to capitalise on the few scoring opportunities on offer.

It was Kowloon’s Tom Bury who found the line first, increasing his side’s lead to 10-0 after 34 minutes, a scoreline that stood at half-time.

It was a different story in the opening stages of the second half, with two early tries to Scottish via Conor Hartley and Jamie Pincott squaring things up at 10-10.

Kowloon regained the lead after a masterful run from Jack Neville sent Ben Madgwick over, but with only 10 minutes remaining Scottish hit the front for the first time.

It was Hartley again who found the line and Jack Wardles’ extras gave his side a 17-15 lead.

But the backbone that Kowloon has displayed in recent weeks was on display again late as Neville slotted a hard-earned penalty to secure victory for his side.