Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers ran CPM Gai Wu Falcons close this afternoon in So Kon Po, losing a tight encounter, 12-0. In this weekend’s other KPMG Women’s Premiership match Kowloon beat Comvita City Sparkle 21-0 while the match between Societe Generale Valley and Natixis HKFC Ice was postponed.

The widely expected tight contest between last year’s second and third finishers on the league table materialised today as Tigers trailed 5-0 at the break despite Falcons exerting strong territorial advantage in the first forty minutes.

“We played superb rugby in the first half,” said Falcons coach Lai Yiu-pang. “We kept Tigers under a lot of pressure and penned them back in their zone for most of the opening forty minutes. We knew that the game was going to be a physical test and we matched up with them well. I think they only managed to get the ball in our half one or two times in the first half.”

Lai credited his forward pack, laden with Hong Kong fifteens and sevens stars, as the difference makers this afternoon, saying, “Our forwards did really well in both attack and defence. We have a lot of sevens players in the backline who are just coming off their international season and I think they need to develop their fifteens-sense a bit more as we made a lot of errors in the backline today,” Lai added.

Some rust is to be expected for Falcons as they integrate their 13 national representatives into the wider squad and particularly so for Aggie Poon Pak-yan who marked her first fifteens action of the season today after being injured in the Asian sevens series. Poon played about 65 minutes in today’s game as she builds up towards next week’s pivotal clash against Valley.

Despite the loss, Tigers coach Liu Kwok-leung was proud of his team’s efforts: “Compared to our game against Valley [a 32-3 loss] last weekend we played much better today. The girls took the lessons from last week to heart and showed a big improvement,” said Liu.

Ahead of the game, Liu had warned his side of the importance of closing down Gai Wu’s speed and attack in open play. That ominous prediction came true as Gai Wu pulled away for good in the second half after capitalising on a rare defensive miscue by Tigers, when a botched clearance kick failed to make touch and was returned by Gai Wu’s speedy wing Chong Ka-yan for a try that put the game out of reach for Tigers.

Liu bemoaned his side’s inability to convert their chances saying, “We had a lot of possession but we couldn’t take our opportunities to score. The game was really close especially in the first half with both teams’ defences playing very well and forcing a lot of errors.

“Our defensive effort was top notch. We really shut them down in the first half and our line speed and communication on defence was really good, but we just lacked some composure on attack,” Liu added.

Still, Tigers will take a lot from today’s encounter: “We are looking forward to the second round of matches and will analyse our early performance with the players, but there is a lot we can build off from this match. I think we may need to refine some of our patterns and structures when we play against the top teams like Valley and Falcons, but it is coming together well,” Liu added.

Tigers will now regroup and prepare to do battle next week against Football Club.

Falcons’ win today brought its hot streak to five matches, over which they have only conceded a single unconverted try, as they build momentum for what promises to be the match of the season so far next week against Valley.

Kowloon collected its first win of the season with a 21-0 whitewash over Premiership debutants Comvita City, who are still hunting for their first win in Hong Kong Women’s Rugby’s top flight.