The HKRU Premiership Grand Championship Finals will pit familiar foes against each other tomorrow at King’s Park with men’s and women’s league champions Societe Generale Valley facing Leighton Asia HKCC and CPM Gai Wu Falcons in the finals for the fourth and third straight seasons respectively.

Valley’s Premiership teams reached their respective finals with just one loss between the two sides, (for the men), and the dual league champions will look to cap dominant campaigns with league and Grand Championship doubles.Further proof of Valley’s strength this season is that their Men’s and Women’s Premiership A sides also reached their respective Finals, with Valley Knights jousting with Football Club in the men’s grade and Valley Red playing Comvita City in the women’s final.

Valley will meet Leighton Asia Hong Kong Cricket Club in a fourth consecutive Grand Final at 18.30. HKCC have yet to beat Valley in the finale over that period, losing a thriller last season, 18-15, in a game where they were left ruing five missed kicks at goal.

Valley will be hunting for its first double since 2008 with HKCC entering the final as league champions for the past three seasons, a position they conceded to Valley earlier in the year. HKCC will be hoping that the league/grand final title-swapping trend of recent years continues tomorrow. If it does it will be a reversal on the season-long results as HKCC have yet to beat Valley this year, losing 25-0, 21-16 and 45-10 in their three ties to date.

HKCC were made to work hard to reach their customary spot in the final after edging Sabre Kowloon by a single point in the semis. Nonetheless, they are where they wanted to be 17 rounds of action with 80 minutes separating them from a first Grand Championship final title.

Valley coach Jack Isaac says his side is relaxed ahead of the final, but wary of the challenges posed by HKCC. “Of course we’re confident in our ability to win, but everyone seems to have us as the heavy favourites. In my experience, games with HKCC are always 50/50 affairs. It will be down to defence, discipline and accuracy for us. We’re very conscious that everything is up for grabs across 80 minutes tomorrow, but if we get those elements right, then I don’t see why we shouldn’t take out the double.

“We’ve talked about the double a bit but we’re not focusing on it. The guys are just keen to get on with what’s in front of them and beating a team like HKCC is enough reward in its own right,” Isaac added.

Valley’s strength in depth has been the most notable factor in their success and Isaac will be spoiled for choice once again in his selection tomorrow: “There’s a slight question mark over Adam Campbell in the tight five, and we’ll give him another look tonight to see if he passes fit, but other than that we’re good. Our Prem A side will also be very strong which they will need in their Final versus Football Club who have been really strong this season in Prem A. I think that will also be a cracking final.”

HKCC continue to dig deep in their roster after a rash of injuries to senior players with eight players from their Premiership squad injured in the lead-up to the Grand Final.

“It’s David versus Goliath at the moment. Valley are fully fit, while we’re down to the bones, but there’s no pressure on us now. It’s finals rugby and anything can happen. We’ve just got to prepare as well as we can.”

Valley and Gai Wu set for third straight HKRU Women’s Grand Final clash

In the women’s competition, Valley Black will take on Gai Wu for the third successive Grand Final between the two clubs at 16.30. Valley ran the table for a second consecutive year this season, bringing their current winning streak to 28 matches – the longest such streak in Hong Kong Rugby.

It is a fitting match-up as the two clubs have dominated the elite edge of women’s rugby in recent seasons. The last six Grand Finals have seen at least one of the two sides taking part, with Valley claiming four titles to Gai Wu’s two over that period. In their head-to-heads over the past two finals, the clubs split the honours with Falcons handing Valley its last loss in domestic competition in 2014, while Valley ran out 20-10 winners over Falcons to claim the title in 2015.

Falcons enter the match as the underdogs after having dropped both of their games to Valley this season, with the first a 15-3 defeat in Round 7, followed by a more comprehensive 49-12 loss in their most recent outing on the last league weekend, when Valley fullback Olivia Coady ran riot for five tries. Despite the final margin, the 12 points posted by Falcons is the most that Valley conceded over their league campaign, when they posted a staggering 565 points.

Valley is reaping the rewards of a long-term vision implemented after coach Chris Garvey arrived at the club following its 2012 Grand Championship.“We lost 9 players after that season and there was a lot of work to do to re-build. The next season we had 25 players competing across the 15s and 10s league. I remember one Saturday when we had back-to-back games and had to finish a 10s match with seven players on the pitch, pulling girls off so we could start a 15s game on the next pitch with 12 players.

“But we gave ourselves three years to re-build with a focus on sustainable growth. We focused on our infrastructure as if we got that right, the results should take care of themselves. We were able to get good coaches and recruit some strong players not just from overseas, but also from local universities and schools. Now we’re at the point where there are only three or four players running out that aren’t playing for Hong Kong or eligible to play for Hong Kong.

“We have two full squads this season and our seconds went from winning only one match last year to reaching the Grand Championship final tomorrow,” Garvey adds.

Valley’s numbers are holding strong for the re-match with Gai Wu says Garvey, “There are always a few niggles and we’ve had to leave vice captain Karen So on the bench, as she hasn’t fully recovered from injury, which hurts because she’s a prop/hooker and our front row has been a bit light this year. But other than that, we’ve held up well.”

That weakness up front contrasts with Gai Wu, whose main strength is its forward pack and set piece. For Garvey that means a contrast in styles and strategies in the final: “Our backbone is the midfield. We’re good at broken play and anything off the cuff is to our advantage. Our weakness is probably our set piece. The forwards have scored tries for us, but not as many as in previous seasons. I’m being a perfectionist really, as the forwards have done the job for us this season, but I don’t think we’ve developed our play up front as much as we have across the backline this season.”

“Gai Wu’s strengths are their set piece and overall fitness, which is slightly better than ours. They have a solid kicking game and I think they will look to play very structured rugby. But I’m confident. We don’t have to chase this game or change our style, we just need to keep calm, soak up any pressure and trust our systems. If we can restrict Gai Wu to two or three phases, we’re in with a chance, but if they’re still in it with ten minutes remaining anything can happen.”

Falcons coach Lai Yiu Pang is angling to have his side in just that position: “Last week’s win over Tigers gave us a lot of confidence and we’re picking up momentum late in the year. All the pressure is on Valley and we’re optimistic for tomorrow.”

Lai knows that defence is the key to Gai Wu’s championship hopes, saying: “Defence needs to be our primary focus. We need to put Valley under heavy pressure and that starts when they have the ball.”

While missing the inspirational but injured Christy Cheng Ka Chi, a leader for Falcons and the Hong Kong Sevens squad, Lai says the rest of his numbers are holding steady. “Up front we have everyone we’d like to have and our training this week, and really since the end of the league, has been positive with over 30 players out for every session. That was a big help in getting us to the stage to achieve what we needed to in the semi final over Tigers.”

Tomorrow’s Premiership finals join 14 other league deciders as a compelling HKRU domestic season draws to a close. HKRU General Manager of Performance Rugby Dai Rees, commented on this year’s Premiership campaigns saying, “Both leagues have been really interesting. I think it’s been the most unpredictable, competitive and exciting season we have had for many years. Despite Valley running away with the league in both competitions, it hasn’t been as clear-cut as some of the results would indicate. Valley won several men’s Premiership games by just a few points and there were three or four matches that could easily have gone against them. The fact that they gutted those games out shows that their biggest advantage is their strength in depth, and they won a lot of games in the final ten minutes.

Rees added that, “The play-offs showed how competitive the clubs were outside of the Valley chase. Kowloon pushed HKCC to the last minute of their semi, despite finishing bottom of the league, while Tigers in the women’s’ competition managed to unseat Gai Wu in the league and nearly made it through to the final. Those results bode well for the continued development of the leagues and while both Valley sides would be the clear favourites going in, HKCC and Gai Wu have everything to play for tomorrow.”