Forget the mother of all battles, the sequel, coming to your TV screens soon. For next weekend, the rugby battle of the season will get under way when local superpowers Asahi Valley and DHL Club clash in the last round of the Grand Championship. It is a winners-take-all match. To the victors, the 2002-03 First Division League title. To the losers, a giant hangover from drowning the sorrows of what might have been.
The stage was set for the grand finale next Saturday after DHL Club defeated DeA Tigers 34-20 at King's Park while arch-rivals Asahi Valley emerged 47-3 victors over Descartes Kowloon at Happy Valley yesterday.
Club ran in three tries and lifted their game a couple of notches in the second half before finishing in cruise control. Their forwards were in superb form, battling loosehead prop Vatche Mundigian leading the way yesterday with a indefatigable display that lifted his side into the final unbeaten.
'It was a very composed performance from our forwards today. The lineouts worked and the scrums were solid,' said Club coach Andrew Tranent.
Across the harbour, it was a different story. Valley, also undefeated, began in cruise mode running in seven tries before the break - flying winger Alex Telea adding a brace to take his season's tally to a record 24 - and then switched off the engines. At half-time the score was 47-3. It ended 47-3.
'It was a bit of us stepping off the gas and it was a bit of Kowloon stepping up their play,' said bemused Valley spokesman Grant Beauzeval. 'I guess our guys did not want to take any chances and get injured.'