As the rain poured down on King’s Park and the seconds ticked away, the upstart club held off a late surge from Bloomberg HK Scottish to win the grand final of the men’s premiership season 26-23 on Saturday.

Up by three in the dying seconds of the game, Sandy Bay capped off a remarkable run that started with them in the basement of the league, and now sees them sipping champagne from the play-off trophy.

Coach Brett Wilkinson said Scottish gave them a serious run for the championship in what was a wet, rough, back and forth contest in which the Scottish side led for substantial portions of the game.

“We were under huge pressure, and the boys just stuck at it,” said Wilkinson, the second-year head coach. “It wasn’t good for the heart, and this game could have gone either way and they could have easily scored at the end there and we would have been on the other side of the results.”

It was in the 76th minute that the dream season for the former Hong Kong Cricket Club side started to feel like a reality. That’s when No 8 Luke van der Smit scored, giving Sandy Bay a late lead and sending the crowd into a frenzy.

Scrum half Liam Slatem, who scored Sandy Bay’s first try of the game early in the first half after he broke through the line, said the win on Saturday became the “story of their season”.

“We started slow, worked our way back into it in the last 10 minutes or so and decided to come to the party.”

Slatem added the team’s turning point was mostly a mental one from cellar dwellers to champions. He said their first win around Christmas was the eventual foundation for what was a Cinderella run to the grand final, sneaking into the final play-off spot.

“I think it was kind of finding our identity, we were probably a group of individuals trying to play different games. And so we realised we’re a good team when we play ball in hand and once we started keeping the ball that was the turning point really.”
Second row Sandy Bay player Jack Delaforce said the victory was quite sweet knowing where they came from earlier in the season.

“All year we had been close in games and we knew it was just a matter of time before it all clicked. I mean seven wins in a row, it’s pretty unbelievable.”