SOCIETE GENERALE VALLEY CLAIM RUGBYPASS.COM PREMIERSHIP TITLE, KOWLOON LEAPFROG SCOTTISH INTO SECOND PLACE

18th Feb 2017


Societe Generale Valley claimed their second straight Premiership title with an emphatic 61-26 win over Herbert Smith Freehills HKCC this afternoon.

Natixis HKFC beat Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers 37-8 while Kowloon continued their hot streak, beating Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish, 28-17, in today’s other RugbyPass.com Premiership matches.

Valley brought their league campaign to a successful close with their 11th win of the year coming against three losses and a draw for 53 points on the table. Kowloon leap-frogged Scottish into second place with their away win at Shek Kip Mei, while HKFC finished fourth in the league, ahead of HKCC and Tigers.

Next week’s opening round of the Grand Championship will see HKFC host HKCC at Sports Road while Tigers travel to Shek Kip Mei to play Scottish. Both matches kick-off at 16.30.

“It was a brilliant day and it was a really good Valley day,” Valley coach Andrew Kelly said, after the club claimed four league titles this afternoon. We’ve got the week off now, but we’re going to make sure we’re firing for the semi.”

Valley accented their impressive finish with an eight-try demolition of the Cricketers, putting the game out of reach by half-time after surging out to a 40-14 lead on the back of a first-half hat-trick from centre Ryan Duplooy.

Valley scored six tries in the opening stanza with the first coming just six minutes into the proceedings, before Duplooy completed his natural hat-trick within a spell of 15 minutes.

Ben Rimene kept pace with Duplooy’s efforts, converting five of Valley’s six tries before running the cycle in the second half with a try, two penalties, a drop goal and a late conversion – good for 26 points on the afternoon.

Centre Andrew Krelle scored two first half tries for HKCC with full-back James Love adding both conversions, but late tries from Valley wing Ryan Meacheam and prop Grant Kemp extended the champions’ lead to 40-14 at the break.

Rimene kept the scoreboard ticking over in the second half with an early penalty, which was followed by a try from winger Jean-Baptiste Aldige. Rimene slotted the conversion and a drop goal later in the half and finished strong with a penalty and a try in the final quarter. HKCC’s second half points came off tries from Robbie McDonald and Salafai Mika, with Love adding a conversion.

Kowloon secured second in the Premiership with their 28-17 win over Scottish. It marked a tough two weeks for Scottish, who surrendered a coveted top-two berth with losses to Valley and Kowloon.

“I’m very happy with the result, I couldn’t have asked for more in terms of effort,” Kowloon coach James Scaysbrook said.

“There were some things that I wasn’t so happy with and we certainly didn’t maintain the mental concentration we’ve been aiming for, but I’m certainly pleased with the result. The energy was great; the tempo we played at was good and our commitment levels were brilliant.”

The evenness of the teams was evident from the get-go, with neither side troubling the scorers in the first quarter. Kowloon, who had looked the more likely of the two sides in attack, broke the deadlock after 23 minutes, with centre Ben Madgwick finding the line.

Jack Neville then added the extras and Scottish was on the scoreboard soon after through a penalty to fly half Gregor McNeish.

Ill-discipline started to creep into the Scottish game as half time neared, with Neville handed two penalty attempts – nailing both to push the score to 13-3.

Kowloon forged further ahead five minutes into the second half, with Madgwick’s centre partner Lewis Warner crossing to put his side in a commanding position.

A yellow card to Scottish back-rower Josh Dowsing after 53 minutes made the job just that little bit tougher and it became almost impossible minutes later when Kowloon forward James Sawyer busted through the Scottish defence for a try, although Neville’s second straight missed conversion gave the hosts some respite.

Trailing 23-3 as the game entered the final quarter Scottish were in need of some serious spark. Winger Marcus Ramage did his best to provide it, running onto his own chip kick to complete a brilliant try under the posts. With the home crowd finding their voices, McNeish’s conversion dragged the margin to within two converted tries at 23-10.

An injury halted play but not the momentum Scottish were building as fullback Peter Breen scored after a scintillating run. McNeish’s conversion made it 23-17 and Scottish had their backs up, but it was Kowloon bruiser Turoa Stephens who had the last say, crossing to put the game beyond doubt.

“We chased the game but it was just too late. You have just got to execute when you get the opportunities. We have just made it a bit harder for ourselves,” Scottish coach Craig Hammond said.

Natixis HKFC held off Tigers 37-8, blowing the match open with a 30 point second half after taking a 7-3 lead shortly before half-time.

A penalty from fly-half Robbie Keith gave Tigers the lead in the fifth minute but the next scoring wouldn’t come until shortly before half-time when lock Josh Afu put Club on the board with a try that was converted by Nathan De Theirry as momentum started to swing in the host’s direction.

The second half was one-way traffic with DeTheirry adding a penalty and a try in the third quarter to push the lead to 18-3, before Tigers replied with a try from centre Joseph Ikenasio - closing the gap to 10 points with 15 minutes remaining. Football Club made the most of the late opportunities with No.8 Marcus Slade crashing over for a try in 72nd minute. DeTheirry’s conversion brought the score to 25-8 but Football Club wasn’t finished as Jevon Groves and scrumhalf Max Page ran in tries in the final five minutes. Niall Rowark added a conversion to bring the final to 37-8 for the hosts.

Valley claim four League Titles

It was a good day for Valley across the board as their women’s team finished a third straight undefeated season with the KPMG Women’s Premiership title. Valley Knights took out the National League (NL) 1 title while Valley Mai Jais claimed the silverware in NL 7.

Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish won the NL2 title while Vistra Typhoons, Discipline Services, HKCC Raiders and Kowloon Beavers won the National League 3, 4, 5 and 6 titles respectively. Transact 24 Tai Po Dragons won the Women’s NL1 while Comvita City 2 won the Women’s NL 2B title.


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