Bloomberg HK Scottish, BorrelliWalsh USRC Tigers and Natixis HKFC were the victors on the Old Mutual International Men’s Premiership’s second Super Saturday of the season at Hong Kong Football Club.

It was Scottish who got the day moving with some sublime play in the opening match, running Herbert Smith Freehills HKCC ragged in a 58-10 victory.

Tries to centre LexKaleca, hooker Shae Turner and No 8 Josh Dowsing saw Scottish open up a 22-5 half-time lead, with an Adrian Griffiths try the lone highlight for HKCC.

Scottish fullback Ben Tyler and HKCC No 8 Ben Davey exchanged tries to advance the scoreline to 27-10 before Scottish took over completely, asserting their dominance both up front and in the backs to run up 31 consecutive points.

Inside centre Sam Vaevae and replacements Ashton Hyde and George Fleming all got in on the fun with tries, while fly half GregorMcNeish slotted six conversions and two penalties for the victors.

“I think the boys have worked pretty hard before and over the Christmas break even though the results didn’t go our way,” Scottish coach Craig Hammond said.

“We were only getting turned over right at the end of games,so the belief was there. We knew we could score tries but our challenge was our defence and I thought the boys worked really hard in defence today. It’s a good challenge for us now because we haven’t won games back-to-back all year.”

Hammond hopes the victory will give his side some momentum after an inconsistent season to date.

“If you look at us last year, we were in second going into the break and we fell apart a little bit,” he said. “We’ve got no pressure on us this year, we’re in fourth at the moment so we have got to keep going. We want to finish as high as we can and have a crack at the grand championships from there,” he said.

The match between Tigers and SocieteGenerale Valley was not short of action, with plenty of tries and some slick play in a match Tigers won 38-27.

Tigers opened the scoring via a superb intercept try fromBraamGerber, with the centre plucking the ball on his own 22 and streaking away to the line. Fly half Robbie Keith added the extras to make it 7-0, before he and his Valley counterpart Ben Rimene traded penalties as the score moved to 10-6 in Tigers’ favour.

It was then that the Tigers took charge, with forwards Joe Ellyattand Lawrence Millar both crossing in emphatic fashion as their side stretched their lead to 24-6 after half an hour of play.

Valley looked in disarray at times as the first half ticked by, struggling with their accuracy and looking a shade of the team that has strung together five consecutive grand championship victories.But as they so often do, they found a try when they needed one most, stringing together a host of phases and eventually earning a penalty try for their persistence.

Tigers took a 24-13 lead into the break, but lost lock Jamie Chipmanto a yellow card in the 37th minute giving Valley a man advantage early in the second half.A Carl Marks try soon after the restart kept the Valley comeback rolling, with Rimene’s extras bringing the margin back to just four points.

The Tigers weren’t about to lie down, however, with Ellyatt barging over for his second try and Keith also finding the line and converting his own work to make it 38-20.

There was a break in scoring through the middle of the second half as Valley tried desperately to find a way back into the match, creating a number of chances they couldn’t quite capitalise on.They eventually found the line in the 68th minute through a perfectly crafted rolling maul, with hooker DayneJans touching down and Rimeneagain adding the extras to make it 38-27.

That was all they could manage though, with the Tigers holding tight in defence to record a win that could prove pivotal in the race for the league championship.

“The boys started really well, pretty much the same as the last time we played them, we put a bit of pressure on them playing in the right areas and we got reward from it,” Tigers coach Sam Hocking said.

“The bench did really well considering four of the boys that came on played 40 minutes in the game before, they brought a lot of energy and I think our whole back-row played really well, they have been outstanding for us this year. Lawrence Miller worked well in the second row and Robbie Keith had a good game.”

The game between HKFC and Kowloon was somewhat of a slog, with Football Club winger Josh Birch scoring the only try.

The home side led 16-6 at the break thanks to Birch’s try and 11 points from the boot of fullback Glyn Hughes, with fly half Jack Neville slotting two penalties for Kowloon.

The second half didn’t reach any great heights, with Hughes and Neville the only players to trouble the scoreboard as HKFC continued their run of good form.

In today’s Old Mutual International Championship competition, Natixis HKFC Scorpions beat Discovery Bay Pirates, 19-7, to retain the Old Mutual International Championship Challenge Cup for a third week.

After a bye next round, the trophy is up for grabs again on 22 January when the challengers are Disciplined Services.