Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers are set for a rematch of last seasons’ grand final against defending league champions Societe Generale Valley in tomorrow’s KPMG Premiership Game of the Week (Happy Valley 6 at 18.00).

SCAA Causeway Bay Phoenix and Transact 24 Tai Po Dragons kick off the round at 16.30 at So Kon Po, with Natixis HKFC hosting Gai Wu Falcons at 18.00 and Kerry Hotel Kowloon facing Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish at Kings Park at 18.15. 

Tigers will be hoping for a similar result in the two side’s first meeting since they claimed their first grand championship in 18 years, beating Valley 13-8.

It was a positive start to the campaign for Tigers last weekend, turning in a convincing win over a rebuilding SCAA Causeway Bay Phoenix side, despite having six first teamers away on national sevens duty.  

Helping to ease the availability crunch were two new faces, with South Africa Sevens centre Tyler Botha and former England U20s Emily Underwood, getting their first taste of the KPMG Premiership.

“We have two new international players this season and both performed well on their debut. Hopefully, they will keep improving as they get more used to and comfortable in our system,” he added.

“Beating Causeway Bay proved our pre-season and training were positive. We were missing our sevens players, so we used the game as an opportunity for bench depth development, and running some of the new transfers this season,” said coach Fan Shun-kei.

For Fan, the opening run was important to build confidence.  

“That win boosted our self-confidence, and helped prove to the girls that we are still a good and competitive team even without our national team players. It also showed that we can play the high-tempo, high-intensity game we want this season.” 

Fan knows that this weekend will be a more testing occasion, facing off against a Valley team that may be lacking Tigers’ international additions, but remains as stocked as they were at the end of last season.

Valley had its own smooth start, dispatching Natixis HKFC without difficulties in their season opener.

“Valley will be a good test for how we react to a strong opponent,” admitted Fan.

It is also a nice position for any coach to be in, given Fan can still wait on an influx of player availability after November’s Olympic qualifiers, making them even more dangerous down the stretch run.

“We will use the first seven matches to continue testing players and formulating our strongest combinations. Because we have many new players, giving them more game time will help us gel and when our sevens players return, our competition for individual positions will be much more intense,” he noted.