The top of the KPMG Women’s Premiership could be shaken up by this weekend’s clash between second-placed Eco Gai Wu Falcons and Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers, just four points behind (KP1, 19:30). Other pairings are just as enticing: Transact 24 Tai Po Dragons host SCAA First Pacific Causeway Bay at King's Park (sixth v fifth), while City Sparkle visit Kowloon (THT, 16:30) (eighth v seventh) and Natixis HKFC Ice welcome table leaders Societe Generale Valley (18:00).

With Gai Wu and Tigers both missing key players, the match offers opportunities for individual performances and perhaps surprises. Gai Wu coach Lai Yiu Pang is especially concerned.

“We are playing understrength, we have players injured and away, so I have limited choice over who to play. The position is not how I would like,” said Lai.

Missing from his regular line-up will be Hong Kong flyer Aggie Poon, out with a groin injury, as well as national teammates Christy Cheng Ka Chi and Melody Blessing Li Nim Yan. Debby Lam is out with a back injury, while Candy Cheng is nursing an ankle injury picked up while on national sevens duty.

Lai is looking to BB Lee Tsz Ting, who he says can be key for them, after strong performances over the summer for the national XVs and sevens outfits.

Taking stock of his depleted squad, Lai has a fortress mentality, believing that keeping the door closed at the back is the best platform to go forward and score points.

“We have to be better in defence,” he said. “Last week we kept discipline in defence, and it served us well. This time it will be more about intelligent defence – using our rugby knowledge and vision to defend smoothly.”

“We don’t normally play under pressure, we’re generally the ones putting pressure on. But I expect that in this game we will play with a certain amount of pressure. I don’t know is we are the underdog. We have to play with confidence.”

“It could be a game of mistakes – the fewest made or the team that capitalises best on their opponents’ errors,” suggests Lai.

Tigers, coming off the back of wins over Tai Po, Kowloon and City, will be missing Natasha Olson-Thorne, her ankle injured on national sevens team duty, and Lo Wai Yan, also suffering an ankle problem.

Coach Fan Shun Kei expects a physical, up-front battle but believes his team are in good shape.

“We took a step up last week, we really progressed – playing quality attacking rugby. We attacked spaces, executed all the attacking opportunities – and the result was we put 56 points on the board,” he said.

Fan has had the team working on their set pieces.

“We will focus on the scrum, keeping it stable, because Gai Wu are very strong there. We’ll also focus on tackling. Again, Gai Wu are dominant in tackling and we have to match that to slow down their attacking game,” he adds.

The coach knows that, in traditionally competitive games like this, the result often depends on attitude as much as tactics.

“This game means a lot to the players,” explains Fan. “Gai Wu and Tigers are always really close. Last year in the Grand Championships we lost by only one or two tries. So they are certainly a focus for us. There’s a feeling in the camp that this is the big one. We’ve got nothing to lose, no pressure – we’ve lost to them last season. On Saturday we just need to play to our strengths.”

There are only two further rounds of the KPMG Women’s Premiership before the mid-season break and split into Premiership and Premiership Development groups of four. Gai Wu will close out this first half of the season with a trip to Valley, in two weeks’ time, and coach Sailo is surely calibrating his team’s readiness to give that their best shot, reflecting on narrow losses to their old foes in the last league game of last season, and then in the Grand Championships.

Meanwhile, in their final two games of the year, Tigers go up against Natixis HKFC Ice and SCAA First Pacific CWB Phoenix.