HKRU Premiership: Tigers look to bounce back against Valley after agonising loss as former Wales international Evans prepares for his bow
- New Tigers head coach Evans maps out long-term development blueprints ahead of ‘tricky’ Valley match-up
- Valley Ladies coach Milo focusing on ‘gelling’ and ‘breakdowns’ as table-top-deciding game awaits
It’s just two weeks into the new season and Hong Kong rugby fans have already been treated to big upsets, close calls and plenty of thumping tackles.
“I have had the opportunity to bounce my ideas off the group and get a better understanding of the club dynamics. I’ll walk before I run, and I want to understand our strengths better so we can build from them,” Evans said, underlining the importance of integrating his Premiership A side from the division below.
“As far as I’m concerned, I have a couple of seasons to continue developing the Tigers to be competitive and to win a championship and a league cup. I also want to facilitate the coach and player pathway, and when I leave, whether that is in two or 10 years or whatever, I aim to have that in place.”
“They are a good outfit, they are new, there is a lot of new energy there, so it’s going to be quite tricky, but our forwards went really well last week and [former Tigers head coach Hocking] has really brought a renewed focus on our set piece,” Fatialofa said.
“Slowly but surely we’re getting there, I know we have [another gear to find], because the quality we have here is too good. We just have to bring it out.”
Elsewhere, Hong Kong Scottish search for their first win of the season against ImpactHK HKU Sandy Bay in King’s Park on Friday, while Football Club host in-form Kowloon on home soil in an early top-of-the-table contest on Saturday.
“We’re gelling and the players are getting that hunger back. We need it because the standard is getting very strong, all of the teams are improved this year. We know [Tigers] will be a tough game. We know where we need to improve from the first two weeks, and we need to be stronger at the breakdown for sure. The breakdown will be massively important against Tigers,” she said.
Conceding just one try so far, Tigers coach Fan Shun-kei hopes to make it three-in-a-row after seeing off Gai Wu and Kowloon in trademark fashion.
Meanwhile, HKFC Ice look to continue their rich try-scoring form from last week against Kowloon Ladies at Sport Road on Saturday afternoon, while Gai Wu need to overcome their recent attacking struggles in their game against SCAA First Pacific Causeway Bay at So Kon Po Recreation Ground the same evening.
The two “games of the week” will be streamed on the Hong Kong Rugby Union’s YouTube and Facebook channels.
