The Saxo Capital Markets Premiership Game of the Week was one for the purists as Natixis Hong Kong Football Club won a kicking duel against Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers, 15-12, at King’s Park.

The scoring was more plentiful in today’s other Premiership action with Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish joining HKFC as the only unbeaten teams in the competition after dispatching Kerry Hotels Kowloon, 59-14.  

Herbert Smith Freehills HKU Sandy Bay made a good fist of it this afternoon before falling to Societe Generale Valley, 38-22.

The game of the week action at King’s Park was tense as two evenly matched defences played each other to a standstill, limiting any scoring opportunities to shots from the tee.  

Fortunately for both sides, two of the best boots in the Premiership were on the park in Tigers’ and Hong Kong fly half Robbie Keith and Football Club’s Glyn Hughes.

The game changed leads throughout with neither side able to get the upper hand or increase their margin to more than three points over their opponents.  

Hughes struck first for Football Club slotting his eighth minute effort to get the visitors on the board before Keith replied two minutes later to level the scores at 3-all.  Neither side could capitalize on their chances across the final 30 minutes of the half as the two defences held strong.  

In the second half, Hughes added to the lead six minutes in, before Keith replied moments later to knot the score at 6-all.  

Keith gave Tigers their first lead in the 50th minute with his third penalty pushing them ahead 9-6, but Hughes replied with two more penalties over the next ten minutes to give Club back the lead, 12-9.

Keith was again good from the tee in the 74th minute to level the scores at 12-all with the game trending towards a draw, before Tigers conceded their last penalty of the day 52-metres out from their posts.

Hughes calmly slotted the kick to give HKFC a 15-12 lead with two minutes remaining. Tigers threw everything into the attack and were parked 40 metres out from the Club try-line across more than a dozen phases but again couldn’t break through or lure the Club defence into a costly penalty as they held on to the narrow win.

The win is the first for new HKFC coach Jack Wiggins, who comes to Sports Road via the Wasps set-up in the UK.  He was pleased to get his first victory under his belt saying, “It’s a different challenge for the group, with a new coach, but they have responded well to what we are doing. We are two wins out of two and enjoying the start to the season.”

“We talk a lot about controlling the things that we can control, our work-rate, our resilience, not being complacent and working hard for each other - and I think they showed that today.

That win was more about character than skill, but good teams win ugly, and I think that’s what’s happened today,” Wiggins added.

Tigers coach Sam Hocking shared Wiggins’ view of the match’s aesthetic, saying, “Our mistakes killed us. Football Club are good on the counter and when the game was loose and open, they look good. They are a strong side with a deep bench.

“There were phases where our defence was really strong and I thought we had done enough to win, but at the end of the day we didn’t. Next week we have Sandy Bay. They came back at Valley really well today, so we will have to prepare well and hopefully bounce back,” he said.

Sandy Bay coach Brett Wilkinson figured it to be a battle of the forwards in his side’s clash with Valley and it was the defending grand champions who showed their strength up front early on, earning a penalty try to take a 7-0 lead over Sandy Bay after 10 minutes.  

Steady Sandy Bay scrumhalf Jack Metters kept his side in touch by notching successive penalties to close the gap to 7-6, before Martin Muller’s captain’s try pushed the margin to 14-6 to Valley after Matt Rosslee’s conversion.

Metters added two more penalties in the final quarter to keep Sandy Bay within striking distance at the break, trailing just 14-12.

Scrumhalf Ruan Duplooy increased Valley’s margin to 19-12 with a try to start the second half, while Harry Sayers added a try in the 48th minute giving Valley a seemingly unassailable lead at 26-12.

Sandy Bay refused to quit, scoring ten unanswered points after a try to No. 8 Luke Van Der Smit, the conversion from fly-half Nikolas Cumming, and a fourth penalty from Metters in the 58th minute, as they closed the gap to just four points down 26-22.

Rosslee broke open the game with a try for Valley five minutes later, with reserve front rower Reid Wilson adding pain with another score in the 70th minute as Valley won 38-22.

HK Scottish held on to the Broony Quaich with a big win over Kowloon at Shek Kip Mei fueled by a five-try first-half with George Fleming, Andrew Henderson and Sean Taylor all scoring, while wing Conor Hartley collected a brace of tries in the last ten minutes. Fly half Gregor McNeish added three conversions and two penalties in the early stages to give Scottish a 37-0 lead at the break.  

They grew the margin across the final forty minutes with wing Ben Cullen picking up a brace while centre Jack Wardle added a score of his own. Kowloon’s second half replies came from Duncan Swanson and reserve Chiu Kai-tung with full back Iwan Phillips adding the conversions.

Today’s results see Scottish and HKFC joint-top of the table with nine points, followed by Valley and Tigers on six points each and Kowloon and Sandy Bay after second round of the Saxo Capital Markets Premiership.