The HKRU launched the KPMG Women’s Premiership 2020/2021 season as part of the Valley Fast Fifteens pre-season tournament today at King’s Park. The kick-off comes at the final stages of the HKRU’s return to play protocol with the Premiership starting on Saturday (7 Nov.).

A planned transformation of the leagues was interrupted by the pandemic with several lower division games cancelled last season scuppering hopes of kicking off 2020 with a Premiership, Championship and National League 1 and 2 leagues, each comprising six teams.

The completion of last season’s Premiership, with Societe Generale Valley sweeping league and grand championship honours, enabled a re-structuring at the pinnacle of the competition, and just in time, as 2020 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for the women’s game. Looming on the horizon is the impending, but still unconfirmed, qualification process for next August’s Rugby World Cup, the first since the women’s team made history by becoming the only HKRU side to reach the fifteen-a-side championship in 2017.

Hong Kong is supposed to contest the Asia Rugby Championship with Japan and Kazakhstan to determine which sides advance. The winner qualifies for the show directly while the runners-up route to a four-team play-off. With details still vague, and the prospect of friendlies ahead of a potential competition dimming, players are keenly focusing on the Premiership, as is national coach Jo Hull.

“All of our national players are engaged in the Premiership, both sevens and fifteens, and for the next six months their whole focus is on Rugby World Cup qualification. Players know they need to perform for their clubs to earn consideration for the squad.

“The Premiership will be used for selection, but with six teams - the best six we believe, the idea is to have much higher intensity games than the club game has previously offered, that has been shown around the world as the only way to prepare for international rugby.

“We are delivering that this season and I think the players will really be challenged. There are seven games on the bounce leading up to Christmas and that will be a very good test for the clubs and players. They haven’t had that in a while and they will have to deal with that intensity,” Hull added.

The stage is set with Valley; Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers; Gai Wu Falcons; Natixis HKFC Ice; SCAA First Pacific Causeway Bay, and DAC Kowloon (CHECK) battling it out.

After an unblemished 14-0 year, double holders Valley enter as favourites, but without a laundry list of elite talent with the off-season departure or retirements of Colleen Tjosvold, Stephanie Cuvelier, Suzanne Sittko, ex Black Fern Olivia Coady, workhorse flanker Toto Cheng and captain Caitlin Spencer. Even Valley’s prodigious depth will be tested by the transition, but player coach Bella Milo is confident that replacements are at the ready and is accordingly aiming high:

“We lost a few players and I thought it might be a challenge to fill the gap, but some of the young players stepped up over the lockdown and came back in great shape, and we’ve been fortunate to get new players through word of mouth and social media. Our preparation has been okay, given the circumstances.

“We want to put ourselves in position to finish on top again. It’s easy to win a single Premiership but defending it will show our character and our culture,” added Milo.

Tigers emerged as a reliable counter-point to the traditionally dominant duo of Valley and Gai Wu in 2019, clipping the Falcons wings and edging them into a third place finish before running out of steam as injuries mounted late in the campaign. Veteran international Lindsay Varty, marking just her second stint with the captain’s armband in her 20th season with Tigers, hailed coach Fan Shun-kei’s off-season programme that saw the team on regular online training sessions during lockdowns. Hopes are high for a continuance of last season’s form with a second raft of young players becoming age eligible for senior rugby, continuing a trend that drove the side’s prominence in 2019. Adding fuel to the fire, Tigers have lured a few old heads across in Hong Kong winger Chong Ka-yan and hooker Iris Yeung.

“We have a great team with a lot of depth and excitement with the new players. We are expecting the usual Tigers’ team spirit, work rate and a little x-factor too. We have our sights on winning the league and Grand Championships, but our focus right now is on our first game and not thinking too far ahead,” said Varty.

Perennial contender Gai Wu suffered a down season by its lofty standards with a third placed finish after a 7-5-1 season, and a similar placing in the grand championship play-off. Falcons can take heart from the performance of its National League 1 side, which finished second last season, as they develop from within.

“We are building nicely towards the first match with a number of players pushing up to the first team. It will be exciting to see how they go as they challenge some of the senior players, it’s also the first time in a long time that we have had our sevens players for preseason and available for the season. We want to win, and create depth and competition within the club, so players aspire to improve and perform to the best of their ability,” said the club’s Pun Wai-yan.

HKFC achieved its larger objectives of avoiding relegation and being competitive in the top four last season, but coach Peter Ayres is now setting the benchmark higher: “We have to upset the top three; we were seconds away from beating Gui Wu last year, and can’t let those opportunities slip by. With the short preseason it will come down to how fast we can set our standard and start performing as a team. It will be interesting to see how other teams line up with this shorter preseason.” 

Kowloon hit their straps last season under first year coach Terry Sibanda, who oversaw the introduction of over 19 young players last season at the club. He is after more of the same this season, saying, “We were not very active in the transfer market this year, we looked at possibilities, but our emphasis was on squad retention from last year and continuing to build on that.

“We have a boost from returning players who missed last season due to injury, with Yip Cho Kwan, Tsang Sin Yan and Shanna Forrest all out to make an impact, and a few more exciting young players to integrate into the squad. We have set the bar higher than last season in terms of performance and attitude.

The objective is simple: be competitive in every game. I expect the first few games will be tough. It will give us a chance to measure ourselves and see what level we are at in terms of our preparation, skill and team play.”

 Prince Wong, coach of SCAA Causeway Bay talked about a challenging pre-season period for the league’s coaches saying, “Under the return to rugby guidelines, we have had limited contact. The players fitness level is high, but with the shorter pre-season, our preparations are really tight and getting back to full contact rugby quickly. The first few games will be extremely hard as we re-adapt to the highest level of women's rugby.”

With access to games initially limited by coronavirus protocols, two KPMG Women’s Premiership games will be streamed weekly throughout the opening month of the Premiership season in November. Matches will be streamed via the HKRU’s Facebook page.