The Old Mutual International Men’s Premiership is back in action this weekend after a break for the Cup of Nations, with Societe Generale Valley and Kowloon slugging it out in the match of the round.

They kick off proceedings at 3pm on Saturday at Happy Valley, while Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers and Herbert Smith Freehills HKCC lock horns at King’s Park at 4.30pm.

Natixis HKFC and Bloomberg HK Scottish round out a bumper line-up of matches at Football Club at 6pm.

Valley sit second after a solid start to the season but Kowloon are in danger of falling off the pace, currently placed fifth, seven points off top spot.

Kowloon coach James Scaysbrook is hopeful his side can continue to build in the lead-up to Christmas.

“It will be nice to get a run of games together,” he said. “We are looking to continue to improve. Despite the loss in the last game [against HKFC], I was reasonably happy with a lot of the process within it, just unfortunately we didn’t put the ball over the line.”

Kowloon will enter the round as fresh as any side, having had only Jack Neville on James Cunningham on national duty.

“We’ll have more guys that won’t have played a lot in the last two weeks,” Scaysbrook said. “We’re continuing to work a few things with our attack and defence and keep our game moving forward.

“They’re a tough team to play down there, they have got a strong set piece and a strong forward pack.

“We know what we are coming up against and we have got to make sure we are prepared for that.”

The Cricketers are in need of a swift response to their 68-17 loss to Scottish before the break and Saturday can’t come quick enough for coach Brett Wilkinson.

“We’re really looking forward to getting going again,” he said. “After the Scottish game we had a look at things and the last two weeks we have trained really well.

“Our main focus has been on little details around defence and all that stuff that was letting us down. We have trained really well and hopefully we can bring that out on the weekend.”

Tests don’t come any bigger than the Tigers at the moment, who strung together three wins on the trot before the break to storm into top spot on the table.

“They are a quality team and in this league there are no easy teams,” Wilkinson said. “Tigers will be physical, they’ll work very hard for each other and they’ll keep at you.

“They play a good game territory wise and then they look to put the squeeze on you around the set piece and they have also got dangerous runners in the backs.

For us to stand a chance we will have to be right on top of our game.”

The HKCC forward pack should be raring to go, with front rowers Ben Roberts and Dylan Rogers, lock Adrian Griffiths and flanker Matt Lamming all featuring in the Cup of Nations.

“The guys that were involved did well, them coming back to the group always adds to the environment and their experience will help us,” Wilkinson said.

For Scottish, it is all about carrying on their momentum from their big win over HKCC when they meet Football Club.

“It’s been a long old break, the boys have freshened up a little bit and everyone is pretty hungry to get stuck in,” coach Craig Hammond said.

“There was a bit of frustration that we had the break because it would have been nice to keep the momentum going.

“It’s still in the boys’ memories that when we stick to our jobs, we get a good set piece and keep a bit of ball, we score some pretty good tries. Hopefully we can carry that on this week against Football Club.”

Scottish tipped in a host of players for Hong Kong over the international break but Hammond is hopeful his squad is primed and ready for a good period before Christmas.

“If we had won that Tigers game [a three-point loss in round five], we could have been up the top, it’s that close,” he said.

“We have got four games running into Christmas and this is a massive part of the season.”