The first day’s Men’s Premiership action of 2016 saw movement in the crowded middle of the table as Bloomberg HK Scottish overcame USRC Borrelli Walsh Tigers 20-11 in a hard fought match at The Rock, where both teams were seeking to rediscover their early-season form after recent losses.

On the day, it looked like a surging Tigers team might take the spoils, with much possession and spending periods camped in the Scottish 22.However, with two penalties for each side, kicked by No. 10 Liam Gallagher for Tigers and No. 9 Charles Cheung for Scottish, the scores remained even as the first half neared its end.

Then a well-worked Scottish try, scored by No. 14 Ben Cullen and successfully converted by Cheung, gave the hosts a 13-6 lead going into the break.

On the restart, Scottish withstood more pressure until eventually Tigers’ endeavour paid off as quick hands fed the ball out to the wing, outside of the Scottish 22, finding No. 1 Dan Barlow who ran home for five points to close up the score.

The game was sealed for Scottish by the quick-thinking of Mark Coebergh, riding high after a good performance with the national U19 team in Singapore and his “Best & Fairest” player in the New Year’s Day tournament.Quick to see an opportunity, he plucked the ball from a ruck and sprinted 30 metres home for a wonderful individual try that left the visitors with a mountain that they were unable to climb as the final 10 minutes played out.

Scottish General Manager Bryan Rennie was especially pleased with his team’s resilience, saying “After two tough losses and down to 13 men for ten minutes we showed a lot of character.We kept it ticking over when Tigers had more of the possession.Overall it perhaps wasn’t a great game, getting pretty scrappy, but a lot of the guys stepped up today with Mark Coebergh in great form on his return from duty with the U19s, and it was good to come away with the result.

Craig Stewart, Head Coach of Tigers was direct about the loss: “We started well and created plenty of opportunities but Scottish showed lots of character and fought us hard all the way, so that when we made a couple of errors they were there to punish us.It’s true we had the bulk of territory and possession but the loss was our own fault and I make no excuses.”

The result lifts HK Scottish to a whisker above their opponents, both on 20 points in the table, behind HKCC who overcame HKFC 32-12 to take up position as the ‘best of the rest’, while Valley marched forward with a solid 42-21 win over sixth-place Kowloon to confirm their dominance in the league this season.

Meanwhile in the Women’s Premiership CPM Gai Wu Falcons overcame Transact 24 Tai Po Dragon Ladies by 34-0, while USRC Borrelli WalshTigers Ladies beat Natixis HKFC Ice 22-3.