Societe Generale Valley face Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers in tomorrow’s KPMG Women’s Premiership Game of the Week (HV-8, 18.00).

The match between Valley, the top team in women’s rugby and Tigers, one of two realistic challengers to that mantle, joins ties between Natixis HKFC Ice and CPM Gai Wu Falcons (HKFC, 18.00) and Kowloon and SCAA First Pacific CWB Phoenix (King’s Park, 19.30) in another exciting KPMG Premiership weekend.

All eyes will be on Tigers as they look to unseat Valley and close the gap on the league’s front-runners, Valley and Gai Wu. Tigers will have their work cut out for them after losing their opening match against Valley, 32-3.

Coach Liu Kwok-leung noted that his side could still be a bit rusty as their 61-10 win over Kowloon last weekend marked their first competitive outing since November. Despite the lengthy lay-off, Tigers are struggling with injury woes.

“We’ll probably bring some players up for the game against Valley, which will make getting the result that much harder, but will give a chance for the young players to get more experience,” said Liu.

“Valley is a tough out, but we’ll do our best. We’ve been preparing hard, and we know them much better now than when we met earlier this season. We’ve been working a lot on our defence, as if you can’t defend against Valley, you have no chance to attack,” added Liu.

Liu is also encouraged by the rapid development of some young players in the Tigers set-up:

“We’ve got a few U18 girls coming through, which is really exciting. Hebe Talas will start this week on the wing. She’s a quality athlete and will be a major player for us in the future.”

Talas was a member of the U18s girls sevens side that won the first Asian U18s Girls Sevens championships in December, scoring a try in the 12-5 win over Kazakhstan in the final. Another up and coming U18s star likely to feature this weekend is forward Maelle Picut, who will start on the bench against Valley. Both are products of the Renaissance College and Sai Kung set-ups.

“I’m really looking forward to see how these girls go,” said Liu, although he won’t be able to use them as liberally as he would like, as both have playing commitments on Sunday that will limit them to a half only against the defending league champions.

The U18s stars could rub shoulders with some of their Hong Kong compatriots in the Valley set-up, with Kelsie Bouttle and Clare Coey both getting Premiership time this season.

“We can’t lose focus as we can’t afford any mistakes against Valley. They have world-class players and a lot of national team players. We can learn a lot from playing them, but we don’t have any pressure. We can just tell the players to go out and enjoy it and that’s when we perform best,” Liu added.

Liu is also satisfied with Tigers’ position on the table, noting that they are within striking distance of the top: “We don’t feel any pressure to move up the table. We can continue to focus on our performance, as we’re confident we can keep ahead of the clubs below us. Our game isn’t yet at the level to consistently match Valley and Gai Wu so we need more experience, which is why this weekend is important.

“Our target is the Grand Championships. We have set a goal to reach the final and beat whoever we face there,” Liu added.

Based on the past two seasons and an undefeated run that is now entering a third straight season, Liu can expect that opponent to be Valley, who also have their eyes on the same prize.

“We’re keeping an eye on the Grand Championships now and working on the expectation that we’ll play Gai Wu again, but this is rugby and anything could happen,” Elliot said.

“Tigers are a good side. They know what they’re doing so it’s always a tough game. Our girls really want this win, but we’re also mindful that the schedule is going to get a lot tougher in the coming weeks. Our challenge now is to play some of our make-up games [including Thursday’s game against HKFC], while managing player availability and fitness and, of course, not picking up too many injuries.

“We need to get through this tough game on Saturday, and then we play Football Club next Thursday, which will be the first time we’ve met this season. We play them again the following week, giving us two matches in nine days, which can be tricky.”

Elliot has reshuffled his forward pack in the hunt for some new combinations for the remainder of the season and that could offer an opportunity for Tigers.

“It will be a baptism of fire for our forwards against the strong Tigers pack,” Elliot concluded.

Gai Wu meanwhile will be lurking in hopes of someone handing Valley a first loss of the season. Gai Wu is currently in first place on the table, although Valley has two games in hand, with a five-point bumper on Valley, (39 points to 34). Falcons will face fourth-ranked HKFC on Saturday while sixth-ranked Kowloon hunts for its second win of the season against fifth-placed Causeway Bay.