Natixis HKFC and Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers Look to Maintain Momentum

A resurgent Natixis HKFC will come out all guns firing against Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish as they bid to seal their place in the top four in the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union Premiership.

Hong Kong Football Club director of rugby Kevin West believes the team has turned a corner following last week’s superb 16-8 victory over leaders Leighton Asia HKCC and will be keen to see that momentum continued as they host second-placed Scottish on Saturday.

“That win (over HKCC) was significant for us on a number of levels not least because it was against the league leaders and also because we were short of a number of players,” said West.

Fly-half Niall Rowark scored all 16 points including a second-half try to lead HKFC to a momentous victory, only their second in seven games and one which drew them level with Abacus Kowloon on 10 points and in fourth place in the standings.

With only the top four entering the season-ending Grand Championship, that is the goal for the Sports Road outfit with West having already admitted that winning the league after their poor start was out of the question.

“It is rewarding for the players who have been putting in a lot of hard work and needed to see some reward for that. Last week should also give us some confidence building up to the game against Hong Kong Scottish. However, we are not delusional and know that we still have a number of things to improve on and need to prepare assiduously if we want another result. We played Scottish in the first game of the season and that was a match that was definitely snatched away from us, so a top quality performance and result is what we require this weekend,” West added.

Hong Kong Scottish will want to improve leaps and bounds on last week’s patchy victory over Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers where after scoring three tries in the first 15 minutes and leading 24-0 they finally held on to eke out a 30-17 victory.

Yet Hong Kong Scottish general manager Dave Whiteford preferred to dwell on the positives. “We showed guts to grind out the win in the end. It was strange as we started incredibly well and then fell apart in the middle of the match,” Whiteford said. “We have come through relatively unscathed considering we made over 160 tackles in that match.”

It could be more of the same against HKFC, whose pack is bound to match the intensity showed by Tigers last Saturday.

“Football Club showed they are still a real threat on their day by knocking off HKCC and I’m sure they will be looking to climb back into the top four with a win over us. We sneaked a close one on the opening day against them and I’m sure Saturday will be another tight battle. They find themselves in a similar position to us last season, where we were in a dogfight with Kowloon for that fourth spot and sometimes that can give you that extra motivation even though you are perhaps out of the (League) title race,” Whiteford said. “Football Club are always strong at home too. We have a key three-match stretch leading into Christmas with HKCC and Valley following this Saturday’s match. We need to take each one as our own little Grand Final and hopefully we will be in a good position going into the break.”

Hong Kong Scottish will be missing a number of key players with No.8 Kane Boucaut the biggest injury worry after he injured his ankle during the warm-up before the Tigers’ game.

Buoyed by their performance last week, Tigers will take on Abacus Kowloon with renewed gusto in hopes of breaking their 31-match losing streak reaching back to October 2012.

“A disappointing 15 minutes proved costly versus Hong Kong Scottish last weekend where inaccuracies in our defence early on allowed them to capitalise and take a big lead. But our players showed a lot of character to come back and our set piece functioned well which was pleasing,” said Tigers rugby director, Chris Davies. “As we look ahead to Kowloon there shall be a different focus as we are fully aware of the threat they poise upfront.”

HKCC, meanwhile, will be hoping to put their setback behind them but will have another tough confrontation on hand when they host Societe Generale Valley and their dangerous backline at Aberdeen Sports Ground.

Valley who scored a bonus-point 26-10 victory over Kowloon last Saturday will pose a threat and will be looking to overturn the 12-9 result when the two sides met on the first day of the season in September.

They also know a win could see them draw level with HKCC at the top of the standings. HKCC presently lead with 28 points followed by Hong Kong Scottish (26) and Valley in third place on 24 points.