HKFC and USRC Tigers progress to Championship semi-finals to meet Valley and Kowloon RFC

HKFC and USRC Tigers progress to Championship semi-finals to meet Valley and Kowloon RFC
HKFC’s Nathan De Thierry makes a break for the HKCC line and looks certain to score, but was stopped one metre short by HKCC’s Alex McQueen (in red boots). Bill Cox/Epoch Times
Updated:

HONG KONG—The line-up for the Grand Championship semi-finals is set with League winners Societe Generale Valley playing Natixis HKFC at Happy Valley and Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers meeting Kowloon RFC at King’s Park this coming Saturday.

Valley and Kowloon finishing 1st and 2nd in the league had byes through to the semi-finals.

Quarter final matches were between HKFC and HKCC at Sports Road and Bloomberg HK Scottish and USRC Tigers at the Rock.

The biggest upset in last week’s matches was the surprise win of Tigers over HK Scottish. In the league Scottish amassed 43 points and finished a close 3rd just overtaken by Kowloon in the final stages. They won 9 games as opposed to Tigers who could only muster 3 wins and finishing bottom of the table on 18 points. But Cup games are different – it is all on the day.

Tigers got their campaign off to a good start with an attacking first half that Scottish were unable to match. Attacking from the off Tigers were 17-0 after 15 minutes of play. A Scottish maul walked a try over the line in the 20th minute but the Tigers responded with a third try to end the half 24-7. The second half started with an early Tigers try and advanced to 31-7 after 50 minutes but from there on Scottish dug in. They fought back to 28-31 but an intercepted Scottish pass allowed the Tigers to grab a late try to seal the win 28-38. Tigers’ scorers were Casey Stone, Robbie Keith, Braam Gerber, Cado Lee Ka-to and Sam Hocking.

Tigers scrum half sets up an attack in the Grand Championship quarter final match against HK Scottish at The Rock, on Saturday Feb 26. (Dan Marchant)
Tigers scrum half sets up an attack in the Grand Championship quarter final match against HK Scottish at The Rock, on Saturday Feb 26. Dan Marchant