HONG KONG—It is neck and neck in Hong Kong Premiership, as HK Scottish picked up 4 points last Saturday Jan 21 against Natixis HKFC while last week’s Premiership leaders Societe Generale Valley drew with Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers, 29-29, leaving the two top teams tied on 43 points.
Kowloon leapfrogged Natixis HKFC with a storming 2nd half performance to beat bottom of the table Herbert Smith Freehills HKCC 47-17.
With just 2 rounds to go in the Championship there will be an important head to head battle at Shek Kip Mei in the next match on Feb 11, pitting the two top teams against each other, the outcome of which could decide the Champion, although in the last match of the regular season Scottish have what seems on paper to be a tougher match against inform Kowloon, while Valley will play the struggling HKCC.
In the next round there will also be head to head confrontation for the 3rd place spot between Kowloon (35 points) and HKFC (32). Kowloon will have a tough final match against HK Scottish while HKFC may have a better chance against Tigers.
In the early game at King’s Park last Saturday Jan 21, Tigers took on Valley and in a lively start Tigers looked well-tuned and soon made inroads into a Valley defence trying to find its feet with a number of key players away at the Sevens in Fiji. A break, up the left wing by Tigers put them in a good attacking position and with successive passes across the pitch winger Casey Stone run in for the 1st try. This was converted by Robbie Keith for a 7-0 lead after 5 minutes of play.
