A bumper semi-final weekend is on the cards in the HKRU RugbyPass.com Premiership Grand Championships, with Societe Generale Valley hosting Natixis HKFC and Kowloon taking on Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers. Valley and HKFC kicks off at 3.00pm at Happy Valley and Kowloon and Tigers meet at King’s Park at 6.00pm.

Valley enter as favourites against HKFC after some sublime late-season form and have had the wood over their opponent, winning all three of the meetings between the sides this season.

“We’re looking good for the weekend and looking forward to it,” Valley coach Andrew Kelly said. “We’re finally at the business end of the season and I think the guys will be up for it.”

Valley will be without Ryan Meacheam who is away at a family wedding, Grant Kemp who is serving a one-week ban and Ed Rolston, who won’t play again this season due to a fractured jaw.

Kelly hopes his side can carry over their positive league form and is expecting a physical encounter against a Football Club side that are starting to play a consistent all-round game.

“Football Club have been pretty good over the last few weeks,” Kelly said. “They keep the ball well, they’ve got big forwards and dangerous backs that can attack as well. We’re going to have to be on our game.”

For HKFC, experienced winger Niall Rowark and prop Callum McFeat-Smith will be missing after sustaining injuries in their side’s quarter-final win over Herbert Smith Freehills HKCC. A number of other players are also under injury clouds and coach Phil Bailey well understands that his side face a redoubtable foe in a Valley side that knows how to get the job done when it matters.

“Even if we were fully fit we would have our work cut out for us,” Bailey said. “Valley have been one of the form sides all year and for the last three or four years, so it was always going to be a hard game no matter what. We need to limit our errors, Valley live off those scraps and they have got a lot of guys that have played professionally. They know what to do and they know how to execute.”

Kowloon are also in top form and are expected to progress, although Tigers have grown another leg come finals time and will be riding high after their upset quarter-final win over Bloomberg HK Scottish. Kowloon have won the last two encounters between the teams, but Tigers have never been blown away, and will take some confidence out of their win over Kowloon in round one.

“We’re really, really keen to get into it,” Tigers coach Craig Stewart said. “Everyone understands what we are capable of doing and understand how big the challenge is against a really good Kowloon side.”

“I’m not too fussed about where we finished in the league because we know what we are capable of when we put things together and apply ourselves,” he added.

While injury and availability have presented Stewart with plenty of headaches this year, he is hopeful of maintaining a relatively unchanged side this week.

One player unavailable for the Tigers is star back rower Alex Woodburn, who will miss the clash with concussion – a big loss against a settled Kowloon outfit.

“They have had really good continuity and cohesion in their selections and they’ve formed a really strong group,” Stewart said.

“They should be confident about the type of rugby they are playing and the fact they finished second obviously makes them pretty strong favourites.”

The return of former England back Olly Barkley is a welcome boost for Kowloon and coach James Scaysbrook, although the backline has been functioning superbly in his absence.

“The boys have been playing well but they have been going well on the back of a lot of hard work done previously,” Scaysbrook said.

With his squad fresh after a week off, Scaysbrook has pretty much a full quota to select from and is expecting his players to need every bit of their reserves.

“Tigers are tough. You know they are going to give you a game for the full 80 minutes,” he said. “They are certainly going to put pressure on you for the whole game and that is the main thing we are expecting.”