“The guys are focused. They put in a good physical performance last week and we’re looking to build on what we’ve done. Considering that big effort last week we came through pretty much unscathed. There really is nobody out this weekend.”

Key to Kowloon’s chances, said Scaysbrook, will be holding focus for a full 80 minutes.

“There are still a few areas we need to improve on, especially our consistency and eliminating the mental errors,” he said. “HKCC have a good all-round game. It will be tough and our challenge is to go out and execute our game plan.

“We don’t have a secret weapon, but when we don’t make mental errors we are a different team. We’ve shown we can dog it out.”

League runners-up HKCC are in sight of their third successive Grand Final appearance, but they won’t take anything for granted this weekend after they scraped a one-point 20-19 win over Kowloon when the teams last played in mid-February.

Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish enter the other semi-final after a tense win over Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers last weekend, a result that saw them concede a 14-point half-time lead before holding on for a drop-goal win in extra-time.

“It was an emotional win,” said HK Scottish coach Craig Hammond, who knows another one will be required if they hope to halt runaway league champions Societe Generale Valley.

“Valley have had a week off so they will be fresh. We respect them and what they are about. We know we’re up against it but we’ve got nothing to lose. It’s play-off footy and can go either way. We’ll go out there and throw the kitchen sink at them.”

Valley coach Jack Isaac said he was expecting the Shek Kip Mei outfit to show “a lot of character and a lot of desire to win” when they front up at Happy Valley.

“The last time we faced them they gave us a lot of problems, especially at the breakdown,” said Isaac.

“They turned over a lot of our ball so that’s what we’ll need to watch out for primarily. They’re an active team and we need to be ready. It’s all up for grabs now.”

HKRU Women’s Grand Championship semi-finals

In the women’s competition it falls to HKFC Ice to try for a miracle win over league champions Valley Black Ladies, who haven’t been beaten in top-tier domestic 15s since 2014.

An upset for the Sports Road ladies would be icing on the cake of an already successful Women’s Premiership debut season.

In fourth place at the end of league competition, HKFC Ice maintained their advantage over SCAA First Pacific CWB Phoenix by winning 27-12 in their Grand Championship quarter-final last Saturday.

But the task ahead is immense. In their two league meetings this season HKFC Ice failed to get on the scoreboard against Valley Black while conceding 97 points.

The other women’s semi promises a titanic clash between high-flying CPM Gai Wu Falcons and upstarts USRC Tigers, who edged Falcons out of second place in the league this season.

The tie is expected be the closest of weekend with very little separating the sides after they finished one point apart in the standings – both with a 9-3 overall win-loss record – and having split their two league matches.

“It's 50:50 and both sides are confident,” said USRC Tigers coach Liu Kwok-leung. “We’re both hampered by injuries so I think attitude will be the key to win this game. We really respect Gai Wu and it should be a good match.”

Gai Wu coach Lai Yiu-pang said defence will be a key factor in determining who advances to the Women’s Grand Championship final.

“Defence is the most important factor. Our defence hasn’t performed well enough under pressure this season and it’s something we’ve been working on individually and as a team. Hopefully that will pay off for us,” said Lai.

“Their play at the breakdown is stronger than ours, but if we can get good possession we can set up our attacking platform. Our pack is strong and the plan will be for them to create the attacking space we need.