Valley Black continue their defence of the Women’s Premiership Grand Championship with a semi-final against USRC Tigers. In the other semi-final, league champions Gai Wu Falcons take on Tai Po Dragons.
Bella Milo, Valley’s player-coach, is keen to see her side playing again, after a long break, but is clearly hopeful that her charges are on track for yet another appearance in the final.
“It’s the most exciting time of the year, the Grand Championships are the big test – the pinnacle of club rugby. We’re all a little bit nervous and excited at the same time. Going into this match with Tigers with so little recent match time is not ideal, but we’ve had a couple of good training sessions that have given us a little bit of confidence,” she said.
“Our last game against Tigers was high quality and high scoring, and we’re expecting something similar this time. That was a fast running game, and likely this will be too, so whoever has the most ball will probably win. We held on to possession well then, and if we repeat that we can make it through to the final,”notes Milo.
Milo and her team have done their homework on Tigers, and pinpointed Lara Schats as a threat they need shut down. Tigers don’t always have great continuity, she says, and is confident if her side hold up their level of play, they will make another final appearance.
With Shan Pong and Stephanie Cuvelier away, Kelsie Bouttle at school in Australia, and Rebecca Thomson out with a fractured cheekbone sustained in training – all in addition to several players missing since Christmas, and Valley’s second team also in semi-final action this weekend – Milo will have slim bench of only four forwards and one back.
The Tigers go into the match buoyed by last week’s solid quarter-final win over Causeway Bay Phoenix, and while coach Fan Shun Kei is in no doubt that Valley will provide stiffer opposition, he takes confidence from the encounters between the two sides earlier in the season.
“We played them twice this year, and did quite well. Our attack is looking really good this year, we just need to keep on doing in attack what we did in that last game, when we have the ball. We’ll use our speed out wide, and try to force penalties by putting them under pressure,” said Fan.
“It will be a bonus if we can get into the final. Valley are strong and skillful, with special threats in Bella and Aroha Savage. Gai Wu have beaten Valley, so we know they can be undone. So our focus has to be on defence and tackling. I want our players to believe in themselves and go firmly into one-on-one tackles, a bit more aggressive,” he added.
Like Valley, Tigers have to work with some absences from their ideal squad, including veteran Lindsay Varty and captain Jessica Ho. Fan has called on the services of second-team flanker Maylynn Ng, who has featured before but never started, aiming to strengthen ball carrying and defending. Lai Pou Fan will move to No. 9 from her usual full back.
Additional reporting and images: HKRU