A women’s Premiership triple-header at King’s Park will feature an end-of-season clash between league champions Valley Black and their longstanding rivals, second-placed Gai Wu Falcons (18.00). Valley, currently on the longest unbeaten streak in Hong Kong rugby, will put their run of 25 matches without loss on the line on Saturday. A win over the Falcons will complete two full league seasons without a defeat and position Valley to defend their Grand Championship title from last year.
The competitiveness of the two sides is such that Valley’s last reverse came at the hands of Gai Wu in the 2013-14 Grand Championship, a match decided by a single try. In a hard-fought contest between the two sides earlier this season, Valley muscled their way to a 15-3 victory – its smallest margin of victory this year – with a defining second-half performance. On Saturday, they will look to again keep the action focused in the centre of the field.
Valley coach Chris Garvey commented “Gai Wu are extremely quick on the wing and have probably the best front row in the Premiership but we should have an edge in midfield. Our forwards continue to do an admirable job, while our back line has become extremely competitive, having previously struggled to get the ball over the line enough to make bonus points. Now we have girls on the bench who can come on and perform. There are no passengers in this side.”
Valley and Hong Kong veteran Colleen Tjosvold echoed Garvey: “We’ll be looking to exploit our contact area skills and stop their wide attack. We play a good territory game and can inch our way up the field if necessary. It will be a good game, but more about attrition than blinding long runs. They go for discipline and running down the flanks. We look to our contact strength to keep up unrelenting pressure.”
“The success we’ve had gives you confidence but also a lot of pressure,” adds Tjosvold. “You’re expected to keep it up. The pressure is always on – every team wants to beat us. You can’t win every game. I’m always confident, but you never know what’s going to happen.”
Gai Wu coach Lai Yiu Pang is keen to topple the league winners, with an eye on staking an early claim on the Grand Championship, as the two sides are the leading contenders to advance to the season’s finale match. He expects his side to maintain possession and build phases in attack, capitalising on their superior fitness. “Conditioning is our strength, and we need to make it count,” he says.
He can draw on almost a full squad against Valley, as a number of players have returned from injury ahead of the play-offs, but the team will miss Tang Wai Kwan, a “key asset” according to Lai, who is grounded after receiving a red card last time out.
Vice-captain Melody Li chimes with her coach:“Valley are physically stronger, so we need to put up a solid defence which has been our training focus. We have to apply pressure to contain them and we have been working harder on our defence patterns.”
With both teams boasting numerous Hong Kong internationals there is much respect shared between the sides. “Gai Wu are a great club, with a lot of talented individuals,” says Garvey. “They’ve had a bit of a rough season with injuries, but some of their girls have been together for 8, 9, 10 years. They are a tight unit.” Lai admires the strength of Valley’s scrum, “which allows them more time and space to build their attack, and their captain Bella Milo, a former captain of Samoa, is a big weapon.”
There is little doubt that the two teams represent the cream of Hong Kong’s Women’s Rugby. Gai Wu boast around ten Hong Kong internationals, while Valley could field an entire side of national representatives, with 16 Hong Kong internationals across both fifteens and sevens, along with the totemic Milo and fullback Olivia Coady, who has represented New Zealand.
While the favourites for the Grand Championship final are Valley and Falcons, both coaches cautioned that they are not counting third-ranked USRC Tigers out of the hunt. The Tigers are coming into form, including a recent win over Gai Wu – just its second loss on the season – a key result that deprived the Falcons of the opportunity to capture the league title and the automatic bye to the Grand Championship semi final that accompanies it.
By virtue of their successful league defence Valley will advance directly to the Grand Championship semi-finals, while the six remaining teams will contest knockout matches for the remaining three slots. The semi-finals and final are “a whole new game,” says Tjosvold. “Even with everything we’ve done, it’s a new scrap. We’re excited.”
As the on-pitch action moves toward its climax, both coaches reflected on the growth and success of the women’s game this season. In particular, both welcomed the introduction of the Super Series, which saw the best players from across the Premiership redistributed to create three teams for a round robin series. Garvey, who is also the Assistant National Women’s XVs coach, says “The Super Series has been wonderful. As a result of availability problems for some of the lower sides, the Premiership has almost turned into two levels. The lower levels have some excellent players but they lack the chance to play enough competitive games. So the Super Series has been excellent and should be repeated.”
Lai, who is also HKRU National Performance Coach (Development), agrees that the Super Series is boosting development and notes that the Premiership is getting stronger, “HKFC and Tai Po Dragons were close at the beginning of the season before injuries cost them and National League One also has more clubs now, indicating that the women’s rugby population is growing. More resources for coaching and training will definitely help close the gaps between clubs.”
Garvey agrees saying, “Kowloon and Tai Po are very young clubs, and if they can get two or three seasons under their belt, they will develop. It’s not a short-term project but with the individuals they’ve got, and maybe some recruitment from overseas, we can have a really competitive Premiership.”
Find the full list of women’s fixtures for the 20 February, 2016 here
Source: HKRU
