HONG KONG Football Club went on a try-scoring spree in their 78-12 hammering of cellar-dwellers Shanghai in the All China Inter City series in Guangzhou yesterday.
Favourites Club lead the standings on 14 points from three games and are certain to fight it out with Asahi Valley for the title.
Club have made it three wins out of three and yesterday's lop-sided victory has done their championship hopes a ton of good.
Valley managed a 19-3 win over the China Agricultural University at Happy Valley to stay in the hunt in second spot - five points behind Club.
Reigning champions Valley needed to win big yesterday - by at least four tries - but came up one try short. They need to beat Football Club by a convincing margin next week to win the title.
Skipper Paul Dingley and brother Jon were back for Valley yesterday, as well as Brent Edwards, Jason Going and Tom Breen.