The Saxo Capital Markets Men’s Rugby Premiership kicks off tomorrow with a Super Saturday of the city’s top domestic rugby action at King’s Park with the action starting with the battle of King’s Park as defending league champions Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers face off with Kerry Hotels Kowloon at 15.00. Both sides use Kings Park as their home ground.

That match is followed by the debut of the newest Premiership super club, Herbert Smith Freehills HKU Sandy Bay, the new outfit formed after the dissolution of the Hong Kong Cricket Club rugby section last year. Sandy Bay will play Natixis HKFC at 16.45 followed by the debut of six-time Grand Champions Societe Generale Valley taking on Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish at King’s Park at 18.00.

The new Sandy Bay Premiership side sees the erstwhile Aberdeen RFC, which has emerged as a force in Hong Kong rugby since its founding in 1993, establishing for the first time a promising pillar-club partnership with HKU and Sandy Bay, with the consolidated club now boasting 1,000 players at all competitive levels, across men’s and women’s rugby.

After a pulsating competition last season that saw Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers claim their first league title in 14 seasons – only to be edged 22-20 by Societe Generale Valley in the Grand Championship – Valley’s sixth straight grand final win, fans are excited at what the season ahead holds in store.

Adding to that excitement is Hong Kong’s steady progress in the qualification campaign for the men’s Rugby World Cup next year in Japan.  Hong Kong have reached the final stage, a four-team qualifier to be played in November, occasioning a break in league action in the same month. With spots in the national team on offer as the HKRU makes its bid for a first ever Rugby World Cup appearance, all eyes will be focused on the opening rounds of the Saxo Capital Markets Premiership as Hong Kong’s top players press their claims. 

“It’s important for players to front up, and use these games to find form and battle harden in readiness for November,” said Hong Kong head coach Leigh Jones also General Manager of Rugby Performance at the HKRU.

“As a coaching team we have been explicit that last season’s games don't count for much, hence this first round of club games, along with the Asian Games and Asian Series for our sevens players, will prove crucial in selecting guys who find their form.

“We can only take 30 players to France and I won't be too surprised if there are a few high profile casualties who simply can't regather their form or work ethic from last season. That's the nature of professional rugby, you can't select players on potential or past performance, you have to go on form.

“This approach adds impetus to our domestic programme over the first five rounds, with the players having to first establish themselves as starters for their clubs, and then out-perform opposition that they may be in direct contention with, to ensure they make the final 30. It’s an exciting prospect,” said Jones.

That excitement is shared across the league with the contenders set once again to make a charge.  Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers in particular will be hoping to pick up where they left off last season and enter the competition with a squad largely intact from last year’s league champions side.

Samuel Hocking, HKRU Coach of the Year last season, said the side has maintained the momentum of its successful season and managed to keep the group largely intact.

“It’s had a positive impact across the club. The atmosphere in training, and in the squad as a whole, is really positive. We’re taking nothing for granted, of course; the way the boys have been training is exceptional. We’re working really hard and are hopefully ready for the season.”

Hocking believes club culture was an essential element of its recent success, something that the large numbers of returning players can be expected to maintain.

“Last year the boys were very close. A lot of our results came in the last 20 minutes of the match, when we came through. Whether it’s down to our fitness or the fact that the boys want to be out there playing for each other, it’s a great thing.”

That great thing looks to continue with Tigers having just two notable departures from last season with Joe Ellyat and Andrew Krelle returning to the UK.  Second-rower Liam Edwards and utility back Zach Hrstich are the new recruits for the year ahead.

Despite a likely back-line re-build this season, Societe Generale Valley can be expected to challenge for silverware once again and have been putting the squad through its paces heavily ahead of kick-off.

“We have had a good pre-season,” said coach Andrew Kelly.

“We toured Japan to play the NTT Communications second side and played Sandy Bay last weekend. We still have a long way to go to be where we want to be, but I’m confident in our new recruits, particularly a couple of Hong Kong qualified guys in Harry Sayers on the wing and Richie Lewis in the centre.

“They’re exciting young players and should help feed into the squad and bring a bit this season. With World Rugby’s five-year eligibility ruling, more and more we are looking for guys like these that are Hong Kong qualified, especially when they’re young and we can get them up to speed.

“We also have a few Kiwis just to make our quota,” lauged Kelly. “Scott Davidson and Mitchell Purvis are both coming in because we lost so many backs in the off-season, but the forward pack remains much the same,” said Kelly. 

The departure of Tiger Bax and Ally Maclay as well as two of the club’s young local guns in Harry Stiles and Paul Altier (away at university) has put a premium on the backline for Valley and Kelly expects a tough campaign ahead.

“The standard is set to rise again. This will be my seventh season in Hong Kong and the standard has gone up every season. It is the inception of the Elite Rugby Programme and its professional set-up that has made it so competitive.”

Valley strugged somewhat in last year’s league campaign, lying in wait for its traditional Grand Championships run, but that approach will have to shift this season as the Premiership’s reduction to four qualifiers only for the Grand Championships will mean league finishes are vital.

“League form really does come into it this year and we were disappointed with our form last year, finishing in third. So that has to be a bit of a goal for us this season. We should be there,” Kelly added.

More New Faces, New Places

Sandy Bay head coach Brett Wilkinson has done a strong job to maintain the side’s elan after an horrific season that saw the club split with erstwhile home Hong Kong Cricket Club.

“We are excited at the change and while there are always a lot of things to do when integrating with another club we have managed to have a good pre-season,” said Wilkinson.

“Our focus now is on consistency and getting off the bottom of the table in the season ahead. But the future looks exciting, as for the first time since the club was formed we have an active mini and youth section, with over 850 youth players at Sandy Bay, and there is now a genuine pathway for young up and coming players,” he added.

Sandy Bay will be without the services of retired Hong Kong lock Adrian Griffiths and Lachlan McCormack who has returned to New Zealand, but welcomes several club transfers for the season ahead with Ash Hyde coming in from HK Scottish and winger Marno Meyer coming over from HKFC.

Hong Kong hooker Alex Post (on loan to Valley for the early part of the season) has also signed on for the 2018/19 campaign, while U20s hooker Callum Tam, fresh off a strong performance for Hong Kong at the World Rugby Junior Trophy, has also joined the cause.

Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish is another club that has struggled of late and is looking to turn fortunes around in Shek Kip Mei. With depth and availability a thorn in the club’s side last season, they have heavily recruited in the off-season, and it is no surprise for the club that maintains a tie with London Scottish that the new arrivals have a Caledonian clip about them.

Scotland U20s centre Matt McPhillips and hooker Lewis Anderson join the club this season along with former England Counties fullback Sean Taylor and Harlequins prop Owen Evans. Utility Back Andrew Henderson arrives from another notable Scottish club-side, Rosslyn Park, while French fly-half Pierre Mornal joins from the Glasgow Hawks.

After losing Ash Hyde and Chris Allman to opposing Premiership sides Scottish scored a coup in the transfer stakes with Hong Kong hooker and captain Dayne Jans joining from Valley.

Scottish continues to provide an important number of Hong Kong’s emerging U20s talent and will feature another crop of recent U20s stars in the season ahead. Four of the starters from Hong Kong’s recent World Rugby Junior Trophy were from the Shek Kip Mei side, including U20s captain and long-serving scrum-half Mark Coebergh, flanker Gregor Ramage and centre Alex Nisbet. Prop Mikkel Christensen joins the U20s lists at Scottish this season, on dual registration with Discovery Bay Pirates, along with another emerging scrumhalf in James Christie.

Natixis Hong Kong Football Club are set for another challenge at the league and Grand Championship title with everything falling into place at the moment except for a full-time coach who is set to be named in the coming weeks.

Fielding a record eight teams in the leagues this season, Football Club can draw on its reserves to challenge for league honours, with the biggest departures from last season being Josh Birch and Henry Poon, both of whom are at university and winger Marno Meyer to Sandy Bay.

Five newcomers come in from overseas, all in the forwards, as HKFC boasted one of the most dangerous backline threats in the competition last season.  Lock Callum McCullough comes in from Wellington and will be joined by fellow second rower Sam Pim from Trinity College in Ireland, as well as Cambridge University back rower Tom Stanley and hooker Campbell Wakely from the University of Queensland.

HKFC also welcomes the return of Raef Morrison, who was amongst the first generation of locally born players to progress through the national ranks.  Morrison has completed his university in Edinburgh and returned to the SAR to once again press his claim in local rugby circles.  Morrison joins an exciting group of youngsters on Sports Road including the emerging player of the last season in Max Denmark who has rocketed from U20s to a regular spot in Hong Kong’s fifteens and sevens squads in the past 18 months.

Don’t miss any of the action at the Saxo Capital Markets Men’s Premiership Super Saturday at King’s Park.  All triple trio matches from Saturday and continuous Game of the Week action throughout the Premiership will be live streamed at HKRU Facebook LIVE https://www.facebook.com/hkrug... , Asia Rugby Facebook LIVE https://www.facebook.com/asia...., and also HKRU Twitter @HongKongRugby.