The Women’s 2020-21 rugby season kicked-off with the inaugural Valley Fast Fifteens pre-season tournament at King’s Park last weekend. The first round of Premiership matches takes place on the 7 November, with the other leagues starting later in the month.

A planned transformation of the women’s rugby structure for the new season comprising of four leagues each comprising six teams – Premiership, Championship and National League 1 and 2 – was hampered by the Wuhan virus pandemic and unplayed matches.

The completion of last season’s Premiership, with Valley Black sweeping League and Grand Championship honours, enabled a re-structuring at the pinnacle of the local women’s game ahead of the Women’s World Cup 2021 in New Zealand.

Hong Kong is supposed to contest the Asia Rugby Championship with Japan and Kazakhstan to determine which sides advance to next August’s tournament. The winner qualifies directly while the runners-up enter a four-team play-off. With details still vague, and the prospect of friendlies ahead of a potential competition dimming, players are keenly focusing on the Premiership, as is national coach Jo Hull.

“All of our national players are engaged in the Premiership, both sevens and fifteens, and for the next six months, their whole focus is on Rugby World Cup qualification. Players know they need to perform for their clubs to earn consideration for the squad,” said Hull

“The Premiership will be used for selection, but with six teams – the best six we believe, the idea is to have much higher intensity games than the club game has previously offered, that has been shown around the world as the only way to prepare for international rugby.

“We are delivering that this season and I think the players will really be challenged. There are seven games on the bounce leading up to Christmas and that will be a very good test for the clubs and players. They haven’t had that in a while and they will have to deal with that intensity,” Hull added.

The new Premiership features Valley; USRC Tigers; Gai Wu Falcons; HKFC Ice; SCAA Causeway Bay Phoenix and Kowloon.

Double holders Valley Black begin the season as favourites, but with many off-season departure or retirements – Colleen Tjosvold, Stephanie Cuvelier, Suzanne Sittko, ex Black Fern Olivia Coady, workhorse flanker Toto Cheng and captain Caitlin Spencer – will Valley player-coach Bella Milo be able to integrate their replacements and retain the team’s high standards?

Milo commented “We lost a few players and I thought it might be a challenge to fill the gap, but some of the young players stepped up over the lockdown and came back in great shape, and we’ve been fortunate to get new players through word of mouth and social media. Our preparation has been okay, given the circumstances.

“We want to put ourselves in position to finish on top again. It’s easy to win a single Premiership but defending it will show our character and our culture,” added Milo.

Over the last couple of seasons USRC Tigers have pushed the traditionally dominant duo of Valley and Gai Wu hard and in 2019 clipped the Falcons wings and edging them into a third-place finish before running out of steam as injuries mounted late in the campaign. Veteran international Lindsay Varty hailed Tiger’s coach Fan Shun-Kei’s off-season programme that included online training sessions during lockdowns. Hopes are high among the players to push on from last season’s form with a second raft of young players becoming age-eligible for senior rugby. The Tigers have also added experience with Hong Kong winger Chong Ka-yan and hooker Iris Yeung joining the squad.

“We have a great team with a lot of depth and excitement with the new players. We are expecting the usual Tigers’ team spirit, work rate and a little x-factor too. We have our sights on winning the league and Grand Championships, but our focus right now is on our first game and not thinking too far ahead,” said Varty.

Perennial contender Gai Wu suffered a down season by its lofty standards with a third-placed finish after a 7-5-1 season, and a similar placing in the grand championship play-off. Falcons can take heart from the performance of its National League 1 side, which finished second last season, as they develop from within.

“We are building nicely towards the first match with a number of players pushing up to the first team. It will be exciting to see how they go as they challenge some of the senior players, it’s also the first time in a long time that we have had our sevens players for preseason and available for the season. We want to win, and create depth and competition within the club, so players aspire to improve and perform to the best of their ability,” said the club’s Pun Wai-yan.

HKFC achieved its larger objectives of avoiding relegation and being competitive in the top four last season, but coach Peter Ayres is now setting the benchmark higher: “We have to upset the top three; we were seconds away from beating Gui Wu last year, and can’t let those opportunities slip by. With the short preseason, it will come down to how fast we can set our standard and start performing as a team. It will be interesting to see how other teams line up with this shorter preseason.”

Kowloon hit their straps last season under first-year coach Terry Sibanda, who oversaw the introduction of over 19 young players last season at the club. He is after more of the same this season, saying, “We were not very active in the transfer market this year, we looked at possibilities, but our emphasis was on squad retention from last year and continuing to build on that.

“We have a boost from returning players who missed last season due to injury, with Yip Cho Kwan, Tsang Sin Yan and Shanna Forrest all out to make an impact, and a few more exciting young players to integrate into the squad. We have set the bar higher than last season in terms of performance and attitude.

The objective is simple: be competitive in every game. I expect the first few games will be tough. It will give us a chance to measure ourselves and see what level we are at in terms of our preparation, skill and team play.”

Prince Wong, coach of SCAA Causeway Bay talked about a challenging pre-season period for the league’s coaches saying, “Under the return to rugby guidelines, we have had limited contact. The players’ fitness level is high, but with the shorter pre-season, our preparations are really tight and getting back to full contact rugby quickly. The first few games will be extremely hard as we re-adapt to the highest level of women’s rugby.”

With access to games initially limited by coronavirus protocols, two Women’s Premiership games will be streamed weekly throughout the opening month of the Premiership season in November. Matches will be streamed via the HKRU’s Facebook page.

Additional reporting: HK Rugby
Images: Valley RFU