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HKRU Premiership
SportHong Kong

Hong Kong Men’s Premiership preview: coaches and captains shoot for the stars after Covid-19-disrupted preseason

  • Another treble for Football Club? Redemption for Tigers? We breakdown all six teams in a wide-open Premiership
  • ‘We will obviously be looking closely at the form of our domestic players,’ says HKRU’s Leigh Jones as he eyes World Cup squad

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The Saxo Markets Men’s Premiership team captains at the 2020-21 season launch at Hong Kong Football Club. Photos: Ike Images
Andrew McNicol
The Saxo Markets Hong Kong Men’s Premiership 2020-21 season will make its long-awaited start on Saturday, November 7, after a tumultuous year which saw last season cut short due to Covid-19. All six teams spent the summer training in limited numbers before adhering to the Hong Kong Rugby Union’s (HKRU) four-week “return to play” preseason programme leading up to the weekend. Respective team captains had a final chance to size others up at the Premiership’s official launch at Hong Kong Football Club on Wednesday.
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Based on the high-level talent that each team has managed to retain and recruit, reigning league and Grand Championship winners Natixis HKFC will likely have their work cut out. Perhaps most encouraging is that almost every team is eyeing at least a top-four place, which ensures a spot in the post-league finals.
Hong Kong’s top men’s and women’s divisions are the only two resuming leagues as the lower Championship, National and Conference leagues continue to hold tight, but it is anticipated that some will return by the end of the year.

The Premiership’s resumption is music to the ears of HKRU general manager of rugby performance and former national men’s 15s coach Leigh Jones, who will be casting a keen eye on potential squad members for the still-postponed 2020 Asian Rugby Championships [ARC] – an important step in the 2023 Rugby World Cup qualifiers. Hong Kong are the defending 2018 and 2019 ARC champions.

Hong Kong during their Rugby World Cup qualification play-off against Cook Islands at Hong Kong Football Club in 2019.
Hong Kong during their Rugby World Cup qualification play-off against Cook Islands at Hong Kong Football Club in 2019.
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“It’s a really important season – a shorter one – and clubs have recruited well from what I understand. That means there’s more pressure on players to perform in a shorter window because the season is closely followed by the ARC. Hopefully, that will be the start of our World Cup journey,” Jones said, adding that last season’s form “does not matter” and players will have to “prove themselves again”.

“In order for that to happen we have to win the ARC, so we will obviously be looking closely at the form of our domestic players because they’ll end up playing in the competition. From there we can potentially qualify for the repechage [round-robin knockout qualifying tournament].

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