Table toppers Natixis HKFC and Societe Generale Valley turned in heavy wins to take the Saxo Markets Premiership Challenge Trophy down to the wire today.  HKFC beat Bloomberg HK Scottish, 62-7, while Valley topped Kerry Hotel Kowloon 38-10.

The bonus point victories kept the tie at the top of the table alive through the end of the five-week competition, with HKFC crowned winners by virtue of a superior points differential.

Both sides finished the Premiership lead-in tournament with four wins against one loss.  This afternoon’s 60-plus outing for Club pushed their points total across the five matches to an incredible 216, against just 83, for a differential of 133, far surpassing Valley’s result of +69 from 164 points scored and 95 conceded.

Those totals gave Club the silverware despite Valley handing HKFC their only loss in the Challenge competition, 26-19, back in September.  

A come from behind 29-24 win for Herbert Smith Freehills HKU Sandy Bay over Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers, combined with the losses by Kowloon and Scottish, lifted the Bay into third place at 3-2 on 14 points, with Scottish in fourth at 2-3 (11 points), Kowloon in fifth (9) and Tigers (1).

No.8 Benjamin McDonnell was the hero at Sports Road, scoring a hat trick in HKFC’s heavy win.  McDonnell’s first try came after 15 minutes, adding to a 10-0 lead after fly half Glyn Hughes struck a penalty in the 2nd minute and lock Patrick Jenkinson added a try in the fourth minute, which Hughes converted. McDonnell’s second try came on 22 minutes as Club stretched its first half lead to 24-nil after Hughes’ extras.

The second half was more of the same with Club totalling 38 points off six tries.  Hughes again started the run with a try to open the half, adding the conversion to push Club past 30, before McDonnel nabbed his third to push the margin to 38-0 after Hughes’ fifth conversion.

Pierce Mackinlay-West and Jonty Wood piled on before Scottish got on the board with a try in the 70th minute to close the gap to 50-7. Club were typically ruthless down the stretch, adding two more tries to bring the total to 62-7 after Hughes’ seventh conversion.

Valley did its best to keep pace in the scoring stakes but a tough Kowloon defence made life difficult.  

Valley led 10-3 at the break after tries from fullback Mitchell Purvis and hooker Hunter Prescott with Kowloon’s points coming from an early penalty struck by fly half Jack Hughes. The hosts made the better half-time adjustments and boast the superior depth, and came out hot after the break, scoring three tries in ten minutes to blow the game open

Wrecking ball centre Peni Latu started the run with his try in the 50th minute, followed by captain Rob Lennox two minutes later, and Ryan Campbell in the 57th minute. Fly half Paddy McDuell’s conversion pushed the lead to 31-3.

Kowloon replied with a try from fullback Michal Hanning, who converted his own score to close the gap to 31-10, but Mitchell Purvis scored his second just before full-time to bring the final score to 38-10.

Tigers and Sandy Bay played the most entertaining match of the day at Kings Park with Tigers leading 21-14 at half-time. Lock duo Liam Edwards and Calvin Hunter powered more than the scrum for Tigers, with each scoring tries to give the hosts a 14-0 lead after the first quarter.  

Sandy Bay struck back through fullback Nikolas Cumming whose try put Sandy Bay on the board before half-time, with a second score coming ten minutes later. Jack Metters converted both to level the score, 14-all.

Tigers captain Sam Purvis put his side on his back to score the go-ahead try, converted by Michael Moloney, shortly before half time with the hosts taking a 21-14 lead into the locker room.

Cumming came up big down the stretch with back to back tries to open the second half and give Sandy Bay it’s first lead, 24-21.

Moloney struck a penalty after 53 minutes to draw even inside the last five minutes, but pacey winger Tomek Tsang, who has been training with the sevens squad, came up the hero with a late Sandy Bay try to sneak the 29-24 win.