Societe Generale Valley’s Men’s and Women’s Premiership teams celebrated joint HKRU Premiership league championship titles this afternoon. The results see both teams automatically advance, after quarter-finals byes, to the HKRU Grand Championship semi-finals.

The Valley men’s XV brought their record to 14-1 after beating Sabre Kowloon 31-24 in Happy Valley while Valley Black Ladies made an emphatic statement with their 13^th league win of the season coming from an eight-try hammering of closest rivals CPM Gai Wu Falcons 49-12.

Valley Black defended their league title and extended their winning streak to two consecutive league seasons - the longest undefeated streak in Hong Kong rugby. Valley fullback and New Zealand Black Fern Olivia Coady scored five tries in the demolition of Falcons to close out a second successive undefeated league season with fourteen wins.

In other men’s Premiership action, Leighton Asia HKCC lost the battle against Natixis Hong Kong Football Club, 24-20, but won the war with a bonus point for a loss within seven keeping them even with Football Club in the final standings on 42 points. HKCC claimed second on the table with a better points differential of +36 to +27.HKCC will now advance alongside Valley to the Grand Championship semi-finals as the league formbook of recent seasons seems to be holding true. HKCC and Valley have reached the Grand Championship final for the last three seasons on the trot, with Valley winning on all three occasions – although this is the first time in the recent rivalry that Valley have taken out the league title.

Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish beat Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers 24-19 in Shek Kip Mei to keep their grip on fifth place in the final standings.The Grand Championship quarter-finals will pit third-ranked HKFC against sixth placed Sabre Kowloon while fourth placed Tigers will host the rematch against fifth ranked Scottish in the other quarter-final.

Despite the boost of a strong partisan crowd assembled at Sports Road, HKFC, who entered the game needing a bonus point win and to keep the Cricketers out of the bonus, suffered a slow start.HKFC conceded eight penalties in the first half to the visitors, two of which were converted by the steady boot of Cricket Club fullback Jason Kjestrup in the opening 30 minutes.

HKCC’s backline looked dangerous with ball in hand in the early going, collecting the first try of the match in the 16^th minute after winger Jamie Robinson finished a nice passage of play started by Rowan Varty, who entered the line off the opposite wing at an opportune moment to create the eventual overlap that Robinson capitalized on.

Lulled by their 11-0 lead, the Cricketers let Football Club come back late in the half as the hosts scored 14 unanswered points to take a 14-11 lead into the interval. HKFC erased the deficit in the final ten through the defence to try beneath the Cricket Club posts. Scrumhalf Jamie Hood’s conversion gave Football Club its first points of the match, 11-7, with six minutes remaining.

With momentum behind them, the HKFC pack set up another attacking opportunity late in the half. Hood collected the ball from the back of a ruck and stutter stepped his way through the interior defence to create his own gap before offloading in contact to hooker Mitch Andrews who took the perfect line in support. Andrews crashed over to the left of the posts leaving Hood with an easy conversion and giving the hosts a 14-11 lead at halftime.

The penalty count against Football Club continued to mount in the second half and Kjestrup drew HKCC level on 14-all with a penalty in the 50^th minute. The match see-sawed for the next 20 minutes before another HKCC penalty gave Kjestrup a chance – with some help from his opposing fullback Kenzo Pannell, who was marched back 10 metres for dissent, to slot his fourth penalty as HKCC took its first lead, 17-14, since the first half with ten minutes on the clock.

But Football Club came roaring back once again to snatch the victory. In the 75^th minute, HKFC back rower Dan Falvey broke through the HKCC centres before being brought down just short of the line. Good support from his fellow forwards eventually put prop Clint Borle over for the try, returning the lead to HKFC, 19-17, and triggering a frenetic finish.

With time running out, HKFC threw everything into the attack in hunt of the vital bonus point win that would seal second place.Fittingly, it was Pannell who redeemed himself for his earlier indiscretion. Starting a lightning fast counter-attack from deep within his own half, the fullback flashed down the right wing, darting in and around several HKCC defenders before diving over in the corner with a minute left. Pannell’s try gave Club the bonus point for tries scored, but still left the score at 24-17 - a margin that would see HKCC collect its own bonus point for a loss within seven.

The conversion from the sideline was too much for Hood and with two minutes remaining HKCC was still within seven points of the lead and in bonus point territory. The result was sealed after Kjestrup converted another late penalty against Football Club, its 13^th of the match.

Kjestrup’s fifth successful pot at goal was enough to secure second place in the standings for HKCC despite the ultimate 24-20 loss.

Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish beat Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers in Shek Kip Mei 24-19 to close out their Premiership campaign.

Olivia Coady’s 5-try effort puts Societe Generale Valley Ladies in the clear over CPM Gai Wu Falcons

In the seven-team Women’s Premiership, Societe Generale Valley Black Ladies stormed through the league undefeated for a second straight season, closing out their 2015/16 league campaign with an emphatic 49-12 win over their nearest rivals, CPM Gai Wu Falcons.

Valley was paced by fullback and New Zealand Black Fern Olivia Coady, who scored five tries, four consecutively with two on either side of halftime, in the eight-try rout over Falcons, the last side in the Women’s Premiership to hand Valley a loss – in the 2013/14 season.

Sevens star Stephanie Cuvelier opened the scoring with an early try, but Falcons replied almost immediately through a try from their own sevens sensation, winger Aggie Poon Pak Yan levelled the scoring at 5-all early on.

After Poon’s tally it was one-way traffic for the league champions with Coady doing all of the driving, scoring two tries for Valley in the second quarter. Bella Milo added a penalty between the first two Coady tries, and a conversion on Coady’s second, to give Valley a 20-5 lead at the half.

Coady completed her natural hat-trick shortly after the re-start - securing the bonus point for Valley – before adding her fourth consecutive score to push Valley out to a 30-5 lead.Sam Scott added a fifth try for Valley, followed by Jen Mackay before Coady collected her fifth with five minutes remaining. Milo’s conversion brought the score to 49-5 before Falcons picked up a consolation try through Chong Ka Yan, the successful conversion bringing the final score to 49-12.