Societe Generale Valley and Leighton Asia HKCC advanced to the Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU) Men’s Grand Championship final after 48-7 and 22-21 wins over Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish and Sabre Kowloon respectively. The two sides will meet the season finale for a fourth straight year. In the women’s semi-finals, undefeated Valley Black Ladies romped home with a 74-0 win over Natixis HKFC Ice while CPM Gai Wu Falcons set up a re-match of last season’s final against Valley with a 24-5 win over Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers.

Valley had no problem handling Scottish with a 48-7 win over the boys from Shek Kip Mei, who battled bravely this season after the loss of several key players to injury and visa issues to reach the semi finals for a second straight season. Valley shot out to a 34-nil lead over Scottish at the break.

No.8 Thomas Lamboley led the try-fest with a first half brace, while fullback Adam Rolston, prop Leon Wei Hon Sum and centre Tiger Bax all added tries in the first forty. Flanker Toby Fenn and centre Ally Maclay scored in the second half, with Scottish’s only points coming from a consolation try from winger Mark Coebergh with Charles Cheung adding the conversion. Valley advanced to their fourth straight Grand Championship final against HKCC in hunt of their first double since 2008.

In Aberdeen, Kowloon made HKCC work hard for the win as they led 21-17 with just two minutes left. It was a pulsating encounter as the two sides exchanged blows from the outset. HKCC dominated territory in the early stages, but it was Kowloon who took the early lead after No.8 Rory Martyn-Smith collected a nicely weighted grubber kick to score in the second minute. Flyhalf Jack Neville’s conversion gave Kowloon a 7-0 lead.

It was an impressive performance for the visitors, who were composed despite HKCC camping in their half for much of the opening half. Superb in defence, Kowloon was also patient when taking their counter-attacking options as they regularly turned their limited territorial advantage into points. Kowloon finished the first half looking the stronger side, but were left ruing a late defensive lapse that allowed HKCC centre Alex McQueen to score in the 38th minute.

HKCC fullback Jason Kjestrup struggled with the boot this afternoon, missing a sitter penalty early on before failing to slot conversions on either side of halftime before McQueen took on the kicking duties. Kjestrup’s counterpart Neville continued his man of the match worthy performance, extending Kowloon’s lead to 10, then 13-0, with two well-struck penalties late in the half.

McQueen put his team on the board after he caught the defence napping to score on the blind-side in the 38th minute. A difficult conversion from the touchline was unsuccessful giving Kowloon a 13-5 lead at the half. The second half would prove as entertaining as the first, with both sides throwing everything into the attack.

HKCC scored first after a series of scrums deep in Kowloon territory. No.8 Marcus Slade corralled the ball at the base of the scrum as the pack inched over the line for the pushover try in the 45th minute; Kjestrup’s second errant conversion left HKCC trailing 13-10. Minutes later, HKCC were rewarded with another opportunity off a second series of scrums deep in Kowloon’s half. Eventually the ball was produced cleanly behind the HKCC pack and scrumhalf Rhodri Needham sent a wide pass to flyhalf Makesi Stowers who bulled over for the try. McQueen’s conversion gave HKCC its first lead 17-13 with twenty minutes remaining.

Kowloon replied shortly thereafter, pressurizing the HKCC defence through multiple phases before Neville leaped over the line for a try in traffic. The try gave Kowloon back the lead at 18-17 and they extended it further with a penalty from Neville extending the margin to 21-17 with ten minutes left.

To their credit, HKCC wasn’t rattled and immediately started kicking the ball behind the Kowloon defence setting up a series of lineouts deep in the Kowloon half. With two minutes remaining, the HKCC forwards brought the ball down cleanly from the lineout, quickly releasing the backline. Several pairs of hands later, the ball came out to danger man Rowan Varty on the wing. Varty sucked in the last line of Kowloon’s defence, before offloading to youngster Matt Wyatt who burned down the sideline to touch down just inside the corner flag. The conversion was wide but HKCC was in the lead, 22-21. A frantic late charge from Kowloon came to naught as time expired.

“That was a coach killer,” said a relieved HKCC coach Deacon Manu. “It could have gone either way and we're over the moon to come away with that one. It was a huge effort from the forwards today and there will be some tired bodies after that, but we just need to keep on working hard for one more week. ”

Manu credited the arrival of former HKFC Director of Rugby Kevin West to the Southside club saying, “Westie has had a big influence on our game since coming on as an assistant coach and head of skills after Christmas. He’s been a massive part of our success since, particularly in our scoring off of the set piece, which has already tripled from last year,” said Manu.

HKCC advanced to their fourth straight final against Valley, although recent years have seen them enter the finale as league champions, a title they conceded to Valley this year. The Cricketers will be hunting for their first Grand Championship title in that span, but Manu concedes the task will be tough against the runaway league champions:

“It’s David versus Goliath at the moment. Valley are fully fit, while we have eight guys out from our Prem side alone and took a couple more knocks today. We’re down to the bones, but there’s no pressure on us now. It’s finals rugby and anything can happen. We’ve just got to prepare as well as we can.”

Kowloon exited their campaign with pride and a strong performance to build on for the future said coach James Scaysbrook: “It’s starting to click now. It took us a while to get started this season, but the lads can see their ability now and there’s a very positive atmosphere at the club. This season was the start of a new journey for Kowloon – new chairman, new coaches and a new way of doing things. We expect to move on in the next two years and we’re looking forward to kicking on and making progress.”

Undefeated league champions Valley Black Ladies proved too strong for HKFC Ice, easily advancing to the Grand Championship final. HKFC Ice bowed out after a strong debut in the Premiership. Coach David Wigley commented on their season saying: “Valley are a level above everyone, but we’re really pleased with our first season in the Premiership.

“We had quite a few injuries early on, but we’ve come on and got stronger. This is a tight-knit group that play for each other. We came in fourth this season and we would have been happy to finish 5th or 6th at the beginning of the year, but now we feel like we can contend against the likes of Tigers and Gai Wu. We’re still at a learning and building stage, but we’re very happy with our performance.”

In the other semi-final, Gai Wu Falcons came up with an emphatic 24-5 win over USRC Tigers to set up a rematch of last year’s Grand Championship final with Valley. Speedster Aggie Poon Pak Yan collected a brace for the Falcons, with Hong Kong fifteens captain and No.8 Chow Mei Nam, and up and coming sevens star Chong Ka Yan, adding tries in the statement win over Tigers. Falcons coach Lai Yiu Pang was proud of the performance saying:

“We went out and executed our game plan, particularly with our defence and our play at the breakdown. It was a really tough game and the team deserves a lot of credit. It was a big win for us and will give us a some momentum. It was also good to get a bit of revenge after Tigers edged us out of second place in the league.”

It will be a rematch of last year’s Grand Championship when Valley beat Falcons 20-10. “It is going to be tough against Valley, said Pang, “They have a lot more size then we do so we’re going to need to be clinical in our defence and tackling. But we have built some strong momentum today. The win over Tigers was really good for our confidence and we deserve our place in the final,” Pang added.