Top-flight clubs enter final stage of fight for ‘a week off’ ahead of Grand Championship
The season-ending play-offs don’t kick-off for another few weeks but many teams in the HKRU Premiership and HKRU Women’s Premiership are fighting like the Grand Championship has already started.
The season-ending play-offs don’t kick-off for another few weeks but many teams in the HKRU Premiership and HKRU Women’s Premiership are fighting like the Grand Championship has already started.
With the obvious exception of men’s champions Societe Generale Valley and runaway women’s leaders Valley Black Ladies, those teams in the frame to secure second place in the standings have a round of must-win matches on Saturday.
For the six HKRU Premiership sides, that coveted runners-up spot means a bye straight through to the Grand Championship semi-finals – and with it an extra week of recovery time after what has been a bruising 2015-16 season.
The bottom four men’s teams enter a knockout quarter-final to determine which two sides advance to meet Valley and the league runners-up in the Grand Championship semis.
The men’s battle for second is, in essence, a two-horse race behind Valley who have 54 points, with Leighton Asia HKCC (37) ahead of third-placed Natixis HKFC (32), followed by Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers (27), Bloomberg HK Scottish (20) and Sabre Kowloon (18).
All teams are working to build momentum, hitting that path into the [Grand Championship] quarter-finals, semi-finals and hopefully the final
Valley host HK Scottish on Saturday afternoon while among the teams battling for second spot HKCC travel to King’s Park to face Kowloon and HKFC host USRC Tigers at Sports Road.
