HK SCOTTISH SURVIVE LAST STAND IN SHEK KIP MEI

16th Dec 2019

Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish beat Kerry Hotel Kowloon 29-13 tonight at Shek Kip Mei to shore up their tenuous hold on fourth place in the HKRU Saxo Markets Premiership. Natixis HKFC kept its stranglehold on first with a 31-17 win over Herbert Smith Freehills HKU Sandy Bay in today’s other Premiership match.

 

Today’s matches were the last Premiership rounds in 2019. Two rounds remain in 2020, starting on 11 January, with the league finished on 18 January. The top four league finishers will advance to the grand championship play-offs. The results leave the table largely unchanged as Club reinforce their top spot on 32 points, followed by Valley (30), with the two set to face off in the New Year. Sandy Bay are in third on 20 points with Scottish chasing on 18 after today’s bonus point win, with Kowloon slipping to 12.

 

Scottish now have breathing room, but no margin for error, for the final two rounds in 2020 when they face Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers and Sandy Bay to close out the league season. The elation for the hosts, who broke a Premiership losing streak that dates to October, was matched by the desolation of a Kowloon team battling its way through to the end of a rough season on the injury front.

 

Last week saw 18 players unavailable for the peninsular side, and today’s loss handed them a few fresh wounds with James Sawyer and Bryn Phillips going down early on. Adding insult to injury, Kowloon created plenty of opportunities throughout the game, but once again failed to convert them, particularly in a blistering start to the game where they gave Scottish more than it could handle, leading to an early penalty and a 3-0 lead.

 

Kowloon mustered its first try through the forwards midway through the half, with lock John Kenny scoring, but Scottish filled the gaps to take a 12-8 lead into the second quarter, with a pushover try scored by No.8 Josh Dowsing and a trademark 40-metre special from Sean Taylor. Scottish were gifted four kickable penalty chances in the first half, but fly half Gregor McNeish could only convert one of three to push the lead to 15-8, inside the final ten minutes of the first half.

 

McNeish missed a second penalty shortly after, but Scottish were handed another shot minutes later as Kowloon were on the wrong end of eight first half penalties. This time, winger Pierre Mounal converted with a nice torpedo from 48 metres to extend the hosts lead to 18-8.

 

A late defensive lapse saw prop Jack Parfitt saunter across the Kowloon line untouched for the final score of the half as Scottish grew their advantage to 25-8. Kowloon winger Huw Alexander had a chance at a momentum-shifting score on 40 minutes, but lost the ball into touch with the try begging.

 

With so much at stake, there was no question of either side’s physical commitment as both teams threw bodies at the ball throughout the game. On balance, however, it was the Scottish forwards who created the superior platform, breaching the gain-line on nearly every attack before Kowloon could chop down their big ball carriers.

Scottish picked up where they left off in the second half after Kowloon made a mess of the restart; pinning themselves in their own half while Scottish battered their line. Scottish were pinged for off-sides, allowing Kowloon to push the attack back to halfway but eventually the pressure told and Conor Hartley scored the bonus point try after just five minutes, pushing the lead to 29-8.

 

Infringements continued with both Scottish and Kowloon losing men to the sin-bin and Kowloon prop Tom Bristow sent off with a red for his second yellow card of the game. The match see-sawed back and forth down the final stretch before flanker Sam Tsoi Kin-san scored a consolation try for Kowloon on 80 minutes to bring the final margin to 29-13.

 

“That was a very tough one,” said Kowloon coach Scott Sneddon post-match. “We started really well before falling afoul of the referee with eight penalties in the first half, which was frustrating considering we have only given away six penalties in the last two games. We will have to review the video and see why our discipline was so bad at periods.

 

“And again we failed to score before half. We had the try line in front of us and we dropped it, if we score that we are in it at 25-15 at halftime, rather than 25-8. It’s disappointing all around. I am not sure that we deserve that score, but when you have a couple of cards and a penalty count that high in this league you are not going to win.”

 

For Scottish coach Craig Hammond the win was a long time coming: “That was massive. There was some pressure coming in, with only one point separating us on the table, and this being our last home game before they resurface the pitch, so last home game of the season. We play better at home, and are going to be on the road to close out, so we needed this result.

 

“We played really well late in the first half and scored the bonus straight after halftime. It was a really good performance, but I was slightly disappointed in the finish. We seemed to want to practice defence because every time we got the ball we gave it right back; but it was good to see a few boys getting their first senior team caps today, so we are really happy with the win.”

 

Hammond knows his side will have to continue to perform to keep a hold of fourth place. “We don’t have any buffer honestly. We have a couple of teams around us on the table still to play in 2020. We have been unlucky a bit against Valley and Club, but we are playing some good rugby now. The last few weeks we have played well, and now we have a three-week break, so that is frustrating for the coaches.”

 

Hammond believes the direction is clear now: “We have to keep going in this direction. When we keep the ball and play direct we score nice tries. Our set piece is functioning and our backs are getting ball from a good platform; we don’t need to change anything, we need to be more clinical.”

 

Kowloon’s outlook is less rosy: “That was the conversation we just had with the boys. The playoffs look unlikely now unless we can produce two perfect performances and Scottish slip up, and I can’t see them doing that. It is a case of picking ourselves up, dusting off and playing or pride, and maybe spoiling some other parties now,” said Sneddon.

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