Hong Kong rugby to revamp domestic leagues in effort to strengthen national team
Premiership and Premiership A will now mirror each other to better develop players and enhance feeder system
Hong Kong's domestic leagues will undergo profound changes from this season that will see the temporary "ring-fencing" of the top two leagues - the HKRU Premiership and Premiership A - in an effort to improve competitive standards and enhance the feeder system for the national team.
The six existing Premiership clubs - Societe Generale Valley, Leighton Asia HKCC, Natixis Hong Kong Football Club, Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish, Abacus Kowloon and Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers - will retain their spots for the coming season and maintain this status for three years, the Hong Kong Rugby Union announced.
Union performance chief Dai Rees said the objective was "to ensure a stable competition that is structured around two performance leagues, Premiership and Premiership A, and supported by a development and community league structure that will ultimately contribute to the national team and high performance rugby ".
These changes are a culmination of months of consultation with local clubs to secure their buy-in
Rees said: "These changes are a culmination of months of consultation with local clubs to secure their buy-in. As a result, the final structure places significant emphasis on establishing clear playing levels, with Hong Kong's elite-level rugby ring-fenced around the clubs participating in the Premiership and Premiership A leagues."
The top two leagues will now mirror each other with club fixtures played at the same location each week, allowing the Premiership teams in these leagues to support each other on any given weekend and maximise the development of their performance players.
Below Premiership A level, National League 1 will become a feeder system and development structure grooming potential high-performance players who aspire to play Premiership rugby.
National League 1 will feature nine teams, headlined by Tin Shui Wai Pandas, who voluntarily relinquished their Premiership A spot to support the wider objectives of Hong Kong rugby.