Hong Kong Women’s Premiership 2020-21 season preview – coaches and captains share Covid-19-impacted preparations and expectations

With all six teams aiming for top-four finishes, is this Hong Kong women’s rugby’s most competitive season yet?

‘Massive reliance’ on the club season to dictate national team’s 2021 World Cup qualifiers, says head coach Hull

Reading Time:6 minutes

KPMG Women’s Premiership 2020-21 captains pose with the league and cup trophies at Kings Park Sports Ground in Ho Man Tin. Photos: Ike Images

Published: 4:52pm, 3 Nov 2020Updated: 10:34pm, 3 Nov 2020

The KPMG Hong Kong Women’s Premiership 2020-21 season kicks off on Saturday, November 7 after an unprecedented nine months off. While players and coaches had brief spells of training before stricter Covid-19-related measures were implemented in the summer, most savoured their first taste of rugby at last weekend’s Valley Fast Fifteens preseason tournament at King’s Park.

Counting down their final week of the Hong Kong Rugby Union’s four-week return-to-play protocol, all six teams are raring to start the 10-round campaign, hopefully paving the way for the still-halted National Leagues.

With the 2021 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand tentatively postponed to next September, fresh recruits and familiar faces will be eyeing a place in the national team’s qualification campaign next March. The Hong Kong women’s 15s made history in 2017 after becoming the first and only HKRU team to qualify for the quadrennial event.

“For us, club rugby is the bread and butter,” said HKRU head of women’s performance and national 15s coach Jo Hull. “Without the club game thriving, we’re not going to have a good national team. We massively rely on the club game’s continuous improvements. It’s just so, so good to be back.”

Jo Hull oversees one of Hong Kong’s final training sessions before the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2017. Photo: Handout

“The players know they have to perform at club level to be selected. There’s a buy-in to do that week-in, week-out. Now there’s a massive reliance on getting through the club season, improving every week, and utilising it as a springboard for when we go into the ARC [2020 Asia Women’s Championship, the Asian qualifier for the World Cup].”

Starting with the reigning league champions Societe Generale Valley Black Ladies, here is a breakdown of each Premiership team’s pandemic preparations and campaign expectations. There are two fewer teams in the league this season, meaning there will be no relegation to National League 1.