HONG KONG SCOTTISH LOOK TO HOLD OFF CAUSEWAY BAY IN KPMG PREMIERSHIP A GAME OF THE WEEK

13th Dec 2019

Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish face off with SCAA First Pacific Causeway Bay on Saturday at KGV at 18.00 in this week’s KPMG Premiership game of the week.  Transact24 Tai Po Dragons take on Kerry Hotel Kowloon at 16.30 at Kings Park in other Premiership A match this weekend.

In the elite Premiership, league leaders Societe Generale Valley take on Natixis HKFC at 1500, while Gai Wu Falcons play Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers at Kings Park at 1800 in other action from the final women’s Premiership round of 2019. The league will resume play on 4 January with a three round sprint to the league finish and the kick-off of the grand championship play-offs.

The game of the week is an intriguing KPMG Premiership A clash between second-placed Scottish (2-1, nine points), and third-ranked Causeway Bay, four points behind them on the table. Kowloon lead Prem A after beating Scottish mid-week (Dec. 10), 27-7 to take sole possession of first place.

Scottish must now rebound from that loss with a win necessary to keep them within striking distance of Kowloon, with the two sides set to meet again in what could be a winner-take-all clash for league honours on 11 January.

Coach Wai Kei-tam chalked the mid-week loss up to a challenging schedule after the break for Hong Kong’s autumn tests.

“After a long break, we faced three games in eight days, this is a big challenge for us. After the first game against Tai Po, we had many injuries, and then one of our key players, Myron Ng, tore her ACL at the start of the Kowloon game.

“We couldn’t play our style against Kowloon, and made too many mistakes to win. Credit to them, they played really well. They have a good mix of experience and young players, they are really balanced and effective.”

That leaves Scottish limping into the end of the year with a few weeks after Saturday’s test to recover, but needing to dig deep one final time this year to get an important result.

“For Causeway Bay, we are balancing working on improving our standard and affording the players as much recovery time as possible. Everyone knows that the coming games are very important. We don’t have room for any mistakes now,” added Wai.

For their part Causeway Bay will be hoping to force foibles from Scottish on Saturday, said coach Prince Wong, who is overseeing a rebuild at the club this season. With several new players exposed to Premiership level in the campaign, Wong needs to keep her side focused as the campaign reaches fever pitch.

“Our game plan won’t change much for Scottish, but we have to maintain our focus though the final whistle. We are confident. All of the teams are very close, and it’s just down to our performance on the day.”

Typically for all of the clubs as end of season approaches, the injury bug has struck Causeway Bay as well.

“We had more injuries after last weekend’s game, but fortunately, we have some players returning this week from previous injuries. That is kind of the way it has been for our squad much of the season.”

For Wong, the potential for Causeway Bay to make a move on the table is dependant upon getting all of her firepower on the pitch at the same time, but even more so on keeping her team grounded with the finish line in sight.

“Our goal is to finish in one of the top two positions in Prem A, but I don’t want our players get distracted by that. They have to concentrate on each game now as it comes,” she added.

In the elite Premiership, top-ranked Valley will play fourth placed HKFC while Gai Wu and Tigers battle it out for second spot.

Tigers had the better of the last meeting in early November, winning a close battle 17-12 but Falcons coach Lai Yiu-pang has once again positioned his side quietly within striking range of a top spot on the table and will now be out to capitalise on a drop in form from an injury-ravaged Tigers squad. This weekend’s clash provides Falcons with an important opportunity to gain some momentum with two games against Valley waiting in 2020.

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