CPM Gai Wu Falcons will again put its undefeated streak on the line against Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers in the HKRU KPMG Women’s Premiership match of the week at So Kon Po at 16.30. Comvita City and Kowloon will tussle at KGV at 18.00 in the weekend’s second match after the Societe Generale Valley versus Natixis HKFC Ice game was postponed.

Falcons will face Tigers for the first time this season on Saturday after a momentum-building 65-5 win over Football Club last week. Tigers enter the match licking their wounds after their first loss of the year, a 32-3 defeat at the hands of Valley last weekend.

Exacerbating matters for Tigers is the fact that coach Liu Kwok-leung lost a few players to injury against Valley, while missing out on three more players who are unavailable this weekend due to work and other commitments. One silver lining for Liu is that the injuries have spared his cadre of Hong Kong players including Natasha Olson-Thorne, Lindsay Varty and Nam Ka-man.

Liu downplayed the impact of last week’s lopsided result saying, “The Valley game really showed some of our deficiencies, but we have analysed our performance very carefully with the team and I think everyone is clear that we need to continue to work on some of our basic skills and execution.

“But that game is behind us now and it doesn’t change our approach. We know that in this league, and particularly now when the more evenly matched teams are starting to play each other, we have got to be at 100% every week and play to our desired structure and game plan.”

Complicating things further, Gai Wu will present an entirely different set of problems for Tigers than Valley.

“Valley are really balanced and have an excellent kicker so they were able to get out of any pressure we put them under too easily. With Falcons it is all about the gas. They have so much speed across the park that our defensive effort, particularly in the open field, will have to be perfect. Our tackling and ball control must be spot on to win,” said Liu.

Liu is trying to keep his charges from adding pressure on themselves by playing a long game. “We are just coming to the end of the first round of the season and the most important thing after any loss is to thoroughly analyse and address any problems. We will look to build momentum as the season goes on.”

Falcons will be out to prevent Tigers from gaining that momentum this week as they bring Hong Kong’s most lethal attack to the park. Falcons and Valley are both on top of the KPMG Premiership table with four wins against zero losses, but Falcons have the best points differential in the league, conceding just five points on the year for a +205 differential ahead of Valley’s +176.

The attack looks even more dangerous this weekend with the widely expected return of flying winger Aggie Poon Pak-yan after a lengthy injury lay-off.

“Aggie is back into full contact training and could start on Saturday,” said Falcons coach Lai Yiu-pang, who is keen to get his sevens star Poon back into action with an expected top of the table clash against Valley looming large next weekend.

Falcons boast 12 other Hong Kong fifteens and sevens team members, all of whom are fit and in the squad against Tigers. While impressive on paper, the high number of national representatives can be a mixed blessing according to Falcons coach Lai Yiu-pang.

“With their national team commitments, we have only been able to train as a full squad with our national representatives once a week for most of the season. That led to some issues in our cohesion early on, but overall all of the players have adapted very well to the structure we want to play.”

“This weekend will be the most competitive game yet for us and I think everyone should expect more close-run results than we have seen so far. Tigers have many stars and they play a more physical style, so we are going to have to be ready for that,” added Lai.

“Other than being fully prepared for what should be a very physical contest, we are not really adjusting much for Tigers. In every game we want to focus on our own performance more than what the other team will do.

“But we need to be ready for some physical play on Saturday. I expect that the contact area and the breakdown will determine the outcome. If we lose that battle at the breakdown then we will struggle to keep building our phase play and getting some momentum going,” said Lai.

Leung meanwhile will be hoping that his side ups their intensity to keep Falcons from hitting their straps.

“We want to bring some physicality into the play. Last year we really struggled in the front row and could not even win our own ball at scrums, but this year the front row has shown a big improvement, so hopefully we can take that on to the pitch on Saturday.”

Easier said than done acknowledges Leung who notes that Falcons’ pack is stocked with potential Hong Kong forwards.

“Gai Wu has a lot of Hong Kong front row players so it will be a big challenge for us, but we have to be able to control the ball and most importantly to control the pace of the game if we want to win.”