This weekend’s penultimate round of the KPMG Women’s Premiership before the break sees most teams still in contention for the season’s second-half reduced Premiership of the four top-placed sides. The other four sides will battle together in a KPMG Women’s Premiership Development, with the aim to drive competitive improvement across the whole league.

In the Game of the Week, it’s third versus fifth as Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers – their tails up after a tantalising draw with Eco GaiWu Falcons last week – face off against SCAA First Pacific Causeway Bay (16.00, HK Education University). Gai Wu play league debutantes Transact 24 Tai Po Dragons (KGV, 16.30), fresh from a second win in this league. Kowloon Leaders pay a visit to table leaders SocieteGenerale Valley (16:30) while Natixis HKFC Ice receive Comvita City Sparkle (18.00).

Tigers coach Fan Shun Kei, who knows the meaning of success as a player, including with the Hong Kong national sevens team, is full of confidence after last week’s draw.

“Our physicality and attacking were excellent. We need to keep up that physicality to cope with the last 20-25 minutes of a game, when tiredness comes in – especially later in the year, when we play against Valley or Gai Wu. In the last game, it was the opposite – we came back strongest in the final 10 minutes,” said Fan.

“The team understands that that outstanding performance sets the standard. Nothing will be much different this week in terms of our game plan. If we execute right and make the tackles, then this team can be dangerous in the league. It’s a real improvement on last year.”

Tigers will be missing three key players this week: last game’s key performer Hebe Talas was concussed playing on Sunday and sits out for a week, while winger Bena Yu Bo Yan and inside centre Lo Wai Yan have commitments.

On the plus side, Natasha Olson-Thorne is back, which Fan says give the side more solidity.

“We expect Causeway Bay to come at us. To be among the top four, they really need this game. The first half will be very exciting, as everyone is fresh. They will go hard and we expect to have to deal with their attack,” relishes Fan.

Causeway Bay come into the game off the back of losses to Gai Wu and Valley, and a surprising 107 reverse to Tai Po, missing the success they had at the start of the season.

Chris Lin is especially unhappy with last week’s result.

“We were missing quite a few players, and several of our squad were just off playing in NL2 games,” he explained. “We made mistakes in defence that resulted in costly penalties, so that’s something we’ve been focusing on this week. If we can hold on to the ball and reduce handling mistakes to improve defensively, we have the backs and the pack to go forward and score.”

“Tigers have strong ball carriers, so we aim to keep the defence error-free and then try to attack the wide lines,” added Lin.

Lin is clear-eyed about what his side should be aiming for in this game, to capture that prestigious spot in the Premiership second half.

“We aim to beat Tigers, but to feel confident of playing in the top half after the break, we need to at least pick up two bonus points [for four tries scored, and a loss by seven points or fewer]. I’m positive about our prospects of playing in the top four,” said Lin.

His side sees the return of two key players who missed the previous game: Martini IP Ka Ling, at inside centre, and Ng Wing Yee, who is fortunately recovered from her spine problem. Lin says that both are greatly respected by the rest of the team and will inspire confidence through their example as well as their ball-carrying.

Especially vying with Causeway Bay for that fourth place in the new compact KPMG Women’s Premiership will be HKFC Ice, just a point ahead and facing a similar run-in – each side going up against in-form Tigers and one of the teams currently below them. Table permutations and bonus points are suddenly being deeply considered alongside defensive strategy and try-scoring.