ROUND 2 OF RUGBYPASS.COM PREMIERSHIP TO FIRM UP CONTENDERS AND PRETENDERS

30th Sep 2016

With the dust still settling on last weekend’s season opener that saw three hard-fought battles, the second round of the HKRU Rugbypass.com Men’s Premiership looks set to provide an early indication of the contenders and the pretenders.

Societe Generale Valley, Herbert Smith Freehills HKCC and Natixis HKFC face off against the trio of Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers, Kowloon and Bloomberg HK Scottish. It is a set of matches with the potential to show which of the teams that finished in the bottom half of the ladder last season are ready to make inroads into the competition’s best, and which sides could be consigned to another rebuilding year.

The match between HKFC and Scottish at the Hong Kong Football Club has the potential to be a blinder, with both outfits coming off fighting losses and desperate not to slip to 0-2. Scottish did everything but win the game in pushing HKCC all the way in a 30-23 loss on opening day and look to have the tools to take it right up to HKFC.

“It will be a good challenge, but if we stick to our guns and do what we do well and not just play for 20, 30 or 40 minutes we have a chance,” Scottish coach Craig Hammond said. “We have got to string a bit more footy together so that’s the big focus going in to this week.”

Hammond praised the first up effort of recruits Ewan Miller (two tries), fly half Gregor McNeish (13 points) and winger Marcus Ramage and is pleased with his side’s new depth. “We have never really been in this position before so it is good to have the guys bashing each other up at training and vying for spots,” he said.

HKFC matched reigning grand champions Valley for all but 10 minutes in its first up 34-6 loss, falling away in the final 10 minutes and allowing Valley to pile on late points. Despite the loss, coach Phil Bailey feels his charges will benefit greatly from the intensity of the hit-out, “It’s just highlighted a few things we need to work out, like game management,” he said.

Bailey is bracing for a physical encounter against Scottish and is well aware it will be no pushover: “They’re a big side and they’ve got some good players, especially in the backs,” Bailey said. “They’ve got a good set piece, big guys in the middle to truck them forward and some class out wide.”

Despite a season-ending shoulder injury to Australian recruit Ben Willis, a flanker, against Valley, Bailey is happy with the state of his squad and is looking forward to as many as four more recruits becoming available in the coming weeks.

Tigers face the unenviable task of facing up to a Valley side that has hit the ground running and seems to have picked up where it left off last year. A first up 17-7 win over Kowloon pleased Tigers coach Craig Stewart, but the way his side performed did not and he knows plenty of improvement is needed.

“I know we can (improve), we have to,” he said. “We’re a much better team than what we showed on Saturday. They’re the best side in the competition and they have got some really, really smart rugby players. We’ve got to front up.”

Stewart is hopeful boom recruit Salom Yiu Kam-shing - whom he rates as one of the best players in Hong Kong - will make his Tigers debut this weekend after switching from Valley during the summer. “He’s a good player,” Stewart said. “He’s a really tough character and we are really lucky to have him.”

Valley coach Andrew Kelly is expecting a confident and physical Tigers side and hopes fielding a similar line-up to round one will foster improvement: “The guys that played last weekend did a really good job, so everyone is fighting for places,” he said. “We want to improve across the board in everything we do, in attack, in defence. I think there is more to give in our squad and in our team.”

HKCC and Kowloon face off at King’s Park in the round’s final match and a Kowloon side that struggled to get its game working in losing to the Tigers last weekend will need to find another level to match HKCC.

Fullback James Love, winger Brad Raper and fly half Jason Kjestrup all made positive starts to the season for HKCC against Scottish and will no doubt prove a handful for a Kowloon side that may take time to settle after recruiting heavily over the summer.

One player to watch for Kowloon as the season progresses is up and coming fly half Jack Neville, who was solid against Tigers and could give HKCC some headaches.

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