Societe Generale Valley rolled over Natixis HKFC Ice 96-3 in last night’s KPMG Women’s Premiership match, which was a make-up fixture after the initial tie in early November was postponed. The two sides meet again next Friday, in the scheduled return encounter.

Their ninth consecutive win of the season saw Valley rack up 16 tries for the reigning champions and puts them level with rivals Gai Wu on 44 points, still with a game in hand, and comfortably clear of third-placed Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers on 25 points.

If Valley were off the boil in their 43-3 win over Tigers last week, as coach James Elliot felt, it all came together against Club, when he was able to run out almost his first-choice squad, with only Adrienne Garvey still not fit. Football Club, on the other hand, were missing several key players, in a game that was always going to be tough.

“It was a dominant performance. Our backline was magnificent, as was our usual back row trio,” enthused Elliot, justifiably, as No.8 Amelie Seure and regular partners on the flanks Olivia Coady and Toto Cheng kept the ball flowing, with younger players Nadia Cuvelier and Jessica Eden also showing well.

Outside centre Laurel Chor led the try table with five, followed by Seure with three. Braces of tries were added by captain Olivia Coady and fly half Kelsie Bouttle, named ‘back of the game’ by her coach. There were also tries for Rebecca Thompson, Rachel Wong, Stephanie Cuvelier, and her sister on the right, Nadia Cuvelier. Zoe Smith safely put away six conversions.

A half-time lead of 58-0 allowed Elliot to re-cycle the Valley forward line up, aiming to strengthen the group’s ability to retain its cohesion through personnel changeovers. Shortly after the restart he brought on KK Wong, props Sonia Chandiramani and Aggie Vira, along with Adrienne Davis, who is securing her place in the squad following her recent rise from the club’s NL1 side. Hong Kong team regular Karen So put in a good shift, earning her the team’s ‘forward of the game’ accolade.

By coming through the game with improved form, no new injuries and with just one more catch-up match to play, Valley are well-placed to enter the Grand Championships at their peak, ominously for all challengers.

Football Club showed better in the second half, and their three points came mid-way through it in one of a couple of forays into their opponents’ twenty-two, exploiting rare errors from the champions. A cool kick from Claire Forster avoided the whitewash.

HKFC coach Dave Wigley acknowledged “a really impressive display from the champions”.

Defending for 90 to 95 percent of the game, he felt, had brought out the best in his depleted side, as he praised their never-say-die commitment.

“I was pleased with the way our girls stuck at it. They just kept on making the tackles. This is just a development side and I think they learned a lot,” he said.

Focusing on the future, Wigley noted that with Football Club’s second team playing two leagues down, in NL2, the extras he was forced to bring into the side were playing well above their usual experience, and he was impressed with how they performed.

“Our second half was much better than the first and we learned a lot. Next week [in the return match against Valley] we will have more of our players back, and we will I hope be able to compete more, especially in our tackling and in rucks. We’re still in fourth, which is where we targeted, but we are improving, as a team,” he said.

“It will be a few years before we can challenge the top clubs, but we’ll just keep working and building, and we’ll get there,” he said, confidently.