Premiership debutants City Sparkle take on a Valley Black team unbeaten for two seasons in the third round of the 2016-17 tournament.
City coach Fung Kei-hang acknowledges that his side’s steep learning curve is about to face an even higher gradient: “It’s going to be a tough game for us but we will focus on our defence and hopefully be able to create some counter opportunities to mount our attack.”
In keeping with this season’s objective of acclimatising to the top flight, Fung views the Valley tie as another crucial learning opportunity for his side. “We have learned a lot from the last two games. We are still struggling to get used to the intensity of play at this level but are working hard on building our own intensity in terms of bringing our pace and quickness into the game.”
Fung is encouraged by some early signs of progress: “We have improved our recycling from the back significantly compared to last season and we managed to score a few points against Football Club last week so we can build from that,” Fung added.
The USRC Tigers will be roaring to go against SCAA CWB Phoenix after a stop-start beginning to the season. They were in action in week one, before joining all of the clubs on a bye for the Women’s Super Series the following weekend and then had a Premiership bye last week – leaving them with only one game over the last three weeks.
Coach Liu Kwok-leung is not concerned that the lengthy lay-off has hampered his team’s preparations. “We’ve done a lot to prepare our mindset for this and to prepare physically. We’re missing three of our sevens players this weekend, but that just creates opportunities for the younger players,” said Liu.
Tigers are bracing for a backlash from Causeway Bay who have yet to record their first win after facing last year’s Grand Finalists Valley and Gai Wu Falcons in the opening weeks. “It will be a hard game and we are ready for that,” said Liu.
“South China are always aggressive, especially early in the match. From playing them over the past few seasons we know we will need to focus on the contact area. It will be a real challenge for us as most of our team don’t have the physical size they have.
“We have been focusing on our defence and have had some hard, physical practice sessions. We know we can win when we play to our game plan so it’s all about our mindset and our discipline. With some experienced players away a lot will rest on the younger players stepping up and I am confident that the they can do it.”
HKFC Ice will look to back up their opening win with another ‘w’ this weekend over Kowloon after a solid start to the season last weekend against City.
“We had a positive start to the season with a tough game against City. Our forwards were key against them, they had an outstanding performance and took the match to them.”
Coach Wigley is pleased with the enthusiastic start but wants to channel his team’s energy better saying, “We need to focus more on improving the structure of our play. We were frenetic in the opener and even though there was a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of our play was disorganised and we wasted a lot of energy.”
Despite the presumed gap between the two sides, with Kowloon finishing near the bottom of the table last season, Wigley remains cautious:
“We go in to every game looking to win – whether by a few or by a lot it doesn’t matter – we take every game as it comes. Even though Kowloon have some losses we don’t consider that. We don’t know what teams have been doing over the break so we don’t take anything for granted.
“Kowloon are strong in the forwards – as are we – so I expect a real battle in the packs. I’m confident in the quality of our forwards and we expect to win the majority of those confrontations,” Wigley added.
Kowloon coach Jonathan Ho is also expecting a tough encounter: “Last season we had two very close matches against Football Club – even though they won both, they were tight affairs. We weren’t too far away from them so we can take some confidence into this match.
“Football Club are very balanced. Rose Fong is a big threat at the back and Claire Forster, who used to be one of our players, is playing well for them up front. But our forwards have also improved and our backline isn’t too far off of Football Club’s pace, so I expect it will be a fast game and we will try to involve our backs to good effect.”
Ho is also confident of a turnaround in his side’s fortunes this year: “The season doesn’t look good in terms of our points on the board, but behind the scenes there has been quite a significant improvement. That isn’t just my view either; I have heard the same from other coaches in the league.
“I think we are most improved in the ruck and I’m pleased that the new players are getting used to being part of this group. Our backs are also more competitive even against the top teams. But we still need to improve our aggression, our tackling and our reaction speed,” Ho concluded.
Additional reporting and image: HKRU
