DeA Tigers have put on hold their Christmas celebrations and will come out determined to teach defending champions Synovate Aberdeen a lesson in today's First Division match featuring two sides who are both well-placed to make it to the season-ending Grand Championship.
DeA had hoped they could have the day off today to start celebrating an early Christmas. A couple of their regulars - backrowers Junior Sua and Scott Stobba - have already booked their flights and left for home. Flyhalf Johnny Zhang Zhiqiang and prop Mike Lo were persuaded to stay on for today's game at King's Park before leaving for the mid-season break to Beijing.
Knowing they would be missing key players, DeA had requested Aberdeen for a postponement until the new year. But Aberdeen, on a high after beating Football Club 23-14 last Saturday, had naturally declined.
'It would have been better for us if the match had been postponed. But Aberdeen have every right to want to play the game tomorrow,' said DeA coach Jim Walker.
'We have lost a couple of players due to the holidays and all our players who turned out for Hong Kong at the Asian Championship are carrying injuries. But we will do our best.'
Aberdeen captain Ken Carnduff sympathised with DeA, but said his team were looking at ending the year on a high note. 'We started slowly, like always but we are now coming together. We felt it would be good to play tomorrow and end on a strong note,' said Carnduff. Aberdeen will also be seeking to avenge their first round loss to DeA.
DeA will miss injured centre Dave Atkinson badly today. However, they will be boosted by the return from injury of captain Steve Gear.
