HONG KONG WOMEN’S RUGBY GETS LIFT WITH KPMG WOMEN’S PREMIERSHIP PARTNERSHIP

23rd Sep 2016

Women’s rugby in Hong Kong continues to thrive. The ever-increasing talent and performance rugby on display has attracted the generous support of KPMG for the next three seasons. The new partnership was unveiled on 21 September at KPMG’s office in Causeway Bay.

Seven teams will contest the title in the 2016/17 KPMG Women’s Premiership with Societe Generale Valley the side to beat after extending their winning streak to two consecutive seasons. CPM Gai Wu Falcons are the traditional contenders for Valley’s crown, but the emergence of Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers and Natixis HKFC Ice last season promise one of the most competitive seasons to date in the women’s game.

“Our top teams are getting more competitive and I think we are in for an exciting race at the top, not just with Gai Wu and Valley obviously, but with Tigers and HKFC adding a lot to the competition last season. All of the teams have been working hard and I am excited to watch what I expect will be a highly competitive championship this season,” said Hong Kong Women’s coach Jo Hull.

SCAA First Pacific Causeway Bay Phoenix are also in the mix along with Kowloon Ladies who return from a challenging season last year determined to climb in the rankings. This season’s Premiership features a new side in Comvita City Sparkle, who replace Tai Po from last year’s championship.

“City entering a team is hugely exciting for me as a national coach. They have a lot of local girls and the club is continually growing. They are really working hard and I hope they will go well,” Hull added.

Six of the seven Women’s Premiership sides open their campaign in this weekend’s Super Saturday action with last season’s League and Grand Champions Valley putting their two-year long undefeated streak on the line against Causeway Bay at 15.00. Last year’s Grand Championship runners-up Gai Wu Falcons look to return to their usual roost at the top of the league tables as they kick off against Kowloon at 16.30 (KP-2), followed by the finale between Premiership debutants City Sparkle and League runners-up Tigers at 18.00. HKFC Ice, last year’s surprising Grand Championship semi-finalists on their first season of Premiership rugby open with a bye.

With international matches slated for November – as a warm-up to the Women’s Rugby World Cup qualifiers in December – the enhanced league standard comes at an ideal time for Hull.

“Without a performance league it will be difficult to achieve what we want to at the national level. We need the players to play at a high level week-in and week-out and this year we will see more of that. We have been clear with the national players that we expect them to be performing for their clubs and making an impact, but the league also has an important role to play in helping us identify new talent.”

HKRU Women’s Development Manager Sam Feausi also predicts a tight battle, saying “It’s going to be close – a lot of the teams have trained and run conditioning programmes all summer with an aim to increase the breadth of their squads.”

Feausi also noted the growing impact of overseas players on the local competition: “We’re seeing stronger players coming into the league, which will drive our performance levels even higher as more Premiership sides recognise the value of having a successful women’s team to the club as a whole,” Feausi added.

The competition is benefiting from steady downstream growth with this season seeing the former development Tens league migrating to a fully fledged third division fifteen-a- side league.


This season’s KPMG Women’s Premiership will be supported by Women’s National Leagues One and Two (NL1 and NL2) with 12 Women’s clubs fielding 25 teams across the three divisions in 2016/17.

KPMG partners with Hong Kong Women’s Rugby to reach new heights KPMG’s commitment is set to catalyse the continued growth and excitement around the women’s game and is marked by a uniquely holistic support for the athletes and competition.

KPMG has offered all Women’s Premiership clubs the use of its innovative Insights Centre in Central – harnessing KPMG’s powerful proprietary analytics for the benefit of local rugby. Further demonstrating its commitment to supporting women’s players both on and off the pitch, KPMG is also creating a bespoke internship programme for members of the women’s rugby community, while its ‘club of the month’ programme will also offer rewards and incentives for the best performing team across all of the divisions in the Women’s leagues throughout the season.

Grant Jamieson, Partner, KPMG China, commented on the partnership saying, “KPMG is excited to enter the partnership with the Hong Kong Rugby Union and looking forward to working with Women’s Rugby in Hong Kong. Rugby shares many of the same values that we hold dear at KPMG such as teamwork, respect, discipline, development of new skills and dedication, which will help engage our people at KPMG and the rugby community.”

HKRU Chairman Pieter Schats said, “When I took up this role two years ago, a key aim of mine was to help grow women’s rugby, which is why the announcement of this partnership with KPMG is one of the most exciting moments of my tenure and I believe a pivotal moment in the development of women’s rugby.”

New Director of Women’s Rugby at the HKRU, Kim Boreham, was equally effusive saying, “Women’s rugby has grown tremendously since I began playing here fifteen years ago. At that time, women were only playing 10-a- side rugby and today we have three full fifteen-a- side leagues with 15 clubs and 25 teams participating. With the welcome support of KPMG, I believe we will see exponential growth in the women’s game over the next few years.”

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