League leaders Societe Generale Valley will visit second placed Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers on Saturday at 18.15 in the KPMG Women’s Premiership Game of the Week at Kings Park.

In the other Premiership Top 4 match, third ranked Gai Wu Falcons face fourth place Natixis HKFC at KGV at 18.00, while Premiership A action sees Transact 24 Tai Po Dragons take on Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish at Happy Valley at 18.00 with SCAA First Pacific Causeway Bay playing Kerry Hotel Kowloon at 16.30 at KGV.

It is the first round of Premiership play after the women’s national XV made history in sweeping the Netherlands to win their first ever European tour series, and hopes are high league-wide that the Hong Kong stars will bring back that level of competitiveness for the two Premiership stretch runs.

Unfortunately for Tigers it seems they will miss out on that potential boost with a number of injuries threatening their chances according to coach Fan Shun-kei, who was also the lead coach for Hong Kong in Europe.

The injury bug has struck Tigers hard said Fan, “We are suffering from serious injury problems and many players will be out this weekend. We have limited resources and firepower for Valley, hopefully our injury problem won’t get worse after Saturday.

“Realistically, our league and grand championship hopes could be badly jeopardized by our current injury issues,” Fan said, opening the door for Gai Wu and HKFC to press their claims with five rounds remaining in the league.

Ominously for Tigers, Valley’s Hong Kong caps are returning in good fettle, having had a massive impact on tour, particularly the club’s forwards. New cap Suzanne Sittko scored for Hong Kong in the second test, as did Valley and Hong Kong captain Dr Karen So, with prop Cheung Shuk-han also adding points on tour and loose forward Riva Brill showing well in a dominant forwards performance against the Netherlands.  

Player coach Bella Milo welcomed the return of players from tour, saying, “We are excited to have our national players back from a successful tour.  A few returned with some niggles so we will just see how they go.

“It is good to have them back with the hope that they bring that same physicality and experience from the tour to this weekend’s game. We need to be direct against them, be effective at the breakdown and disrupt their set piece.

“It’s always a good fast game versus Tigers,” promised Milo, who is keen to knock the rust off after the break.

“It has been awhile since we played and heading into the Top 4 it is anyone’s game now. But we are happy with our position at the moment. We had a good first round, were able to try out a few things and have been tested, so we are in a good place at the moment.”

After dominating the league but being pipped at Grand Championship time the last two seasons, Milo is out to ensure that her team doesn’t lose that place either.

“Mind-set and prepareation are keys. Our mental and physical preparation for each game from here on out will be crucial. Every game is tough, so we have to turn up ready each week.”

With mid-week games coming up this week, the Premiership A standings see Kerry Hotel Kowloon and Bloomberg HK Scottish level at the top of the minor table on five points each, followed by Causeway Bay and Tai Po.