Clone to an SSH destination

How do I clone a repo _to_ a new repo over SSH? I tried:

  cd xx
  git clone --bare . gitserver:/scm/xx.git
  git clone --bare . ssh://gitserver/scm/xx.git

This does not have the expected result, and instead a local path of the given name is created (eg. a 'gitserver:' directory)

This seems to be a FAQ, but the only answer I can find (Google) is to 
login to the server and create the repo, setup a remote and push to it.
 
This is quite cumbersome; we have a large team of devs who use a simple 
'git clone' to an NFS directory, but we wish to retire NFS access.

Is there a technical limiation preventing clone-to-ssh, or just something waiting to be implemented?

(Please keep me CC'd; I am currently reading the web archives)

Many thanks