Congratulations to Nancy McGillivray who becomes the first player raised in Hong Kong to be selected for the England Rugby senior women’s squad.
McGillivray grew up in Hong Kong playing mini and youth rugby for DB Pirates and age grade for the HK teams. She had two seasons with Kowloon rugby and then headed off to university in the United Kingdom.
After the individual creativity of Art Week, the wonders of team creativity are on display as Rugby Week 2023 scrums down.
Unfortunately, the traditional rugby week curtain-raiser Kowloonfest has been postponed again until 2024 – the old and venerable taking longer to recover and reboot post covid.
This year’s action starts with, perhaps the best rugby of the week, the Hong Kong 10s at Hong Kong Football Club on Wednesday 29 March. Proper scrums and brutal power forward play are features of the Tens, especially on Thursday night. It’s perhaps the closest we in Hong Kong can get to seeing modern rugby up close and personal. Select teams packed with talent and big names, new and old, from around the world put a physicality and rawness to images seen on television that really needs to be experienced in person.
Amidst the Sevens partying, a rugby tournament takes place… After November’s empty stadium, harsh crowd restrictions and drab atmosphere – can the Sevens recover its allure as one of the world’s great sporting/social events?
Here are the dates for your Rugby Week 2023 diary.
Kowloon Fest
When: postponed to 2024
More info: www.rugbyfest.org
Hong Kong Tens
When: 29-30 March, 2023
Where: Hong Kong Football Club
How much: $120
More info: www.hkfc10s.com
HK Sevens
Date: 31 March – 2 April, 2023
Venue: HK Stadium
Tickets: $1,950
More info: www.HKsevens.com
After the excitement of opening day in Eden Park, has a full stadium been so quiet when Australia were 17-0 up… The action on day two of the Women’s Rugby World Cup moved to Whangarei where the remaining six teams took the field for the first time.
The Northlands Stadium is a unique stadium with a large hill opposite the main stand from which you can enjoy the game picnic style.
Large groups of Welsh and American fans have made the long journey to support their team, although the fans of the day award goes to these three Japanese fans who flew from Japan for their match against Canada and will fly back after the game – Chapeau!
More photos from day two can be found here
The bitterly cold wind has faded as the weekend approaches leaving the City of Sails bathed in spring sunshine for the start of the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2021 – played in 2022.
Covid forced a twelve-month delay and destroyed the qualification hopes of several countries including Hong Kong. But for those who made it, the extra year has allowed them time to improve…
The opening day’s matches at the iconic Eden Park are a 45,000 sell out and the merchandise booth in the city centre is doing brisk business as young and old get ready for the tournament to begin.
New Zealand is a rugby-mad country, but Auckland in its first major event post covid is not really ‘feeling’ the RWC2021 yet… And it’s the visiting Fijians who are making the noise as Fijiana make their debut at a Women’s World Cup.
All the matches can be enjoyed on World Rugby’s free live stream and Auckland is 5 hours ahead of Hong Kong.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2022/20221007-Womens-World-Cup-in-New-Zealand/i-TXxrf3n
The 2022 Sevens Challenger Series kicks off in Santiago, Chile on the 12-14 August, with qualification to the World Sevens Series awaiting the winner. As Hong Kong’s coach Paul John puts it “Everybody wants to be on the World Series and test themselves against the best in the world.”
Speaking about the squad he’s picked John continued “There’s a lot of experience in the boys who got picked. They’re the ones who have been consistently putting their hands up during training and the competitions we’ve had recently.”
The Challenger Series is three-day tournament, with 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams competing to achieve core status on the Series. Hong Kong are in Pool B with Tonga, Jamaica and Zimbabwe.
Captain Max Woodward says the squad want to shed their ‘nearly men’ tag and is blunt about his desire: “As long as I’ve been playing 7s for Hong Kong I’ve wanted to get on the [World Sevens] Series. It would mean a massive amount to me, and I know the rest of the squad feel the same way. We’ve been so close before and the yearning is there.”
“We’re very excited to play a winner takes all tournament – knowing that we are one of the favourites and the chance to win is very much within our capability is a real boost.,” added Woodward.
Watch the 2022 Sevens Challenger Series live on the World Rugby website.
Hong Kong Men’s Sevens Squad
Max Woodward (Captain), Callum McCullough, Michael Coverdale, Kane Boucaut, Alessandro Nardoni, Pierce Mackinlay-West, Sebastian Brien, Lee Ka To Cado, Hugo Stiles, Russell Webb, Alex McQueen, Harry Sayers, Max Denmark, Yiu Kam Shing.
Additional reporting and images: World Rugby, HKRU
Hong Kong men’s XV retained the Asia Rugby Championship in Incheon on Saturday beating South Korea 23-21 with the final kick of the match, despite being a player down for most of the game.
The dramatic Gregor McNeish’s 80th-minute game-winning penalty also means Hong Kong move on to the next stage of the Rugby World Cup 2023 Qualification pathway, setting up an enticing match against Tonga on 23 July in Australia, knowing they are one match away from RWC qualification.
“We did not make it easy for ourselves with some of our indiscipline issues but the result shows the character in this team,” said Lewis Evans after his international coaching debut.
“Going down a man after a minute, and leading at half-time shows the quality and belief that we have in this team and our performance in the last half shows the mental resilience we have developed over the past three years. I cannot say enough about the boys today, they were outstanding,” added Evans.
Right-wing Charles Higson-Smith was shown a red card in the first minute of the match in sweltering conditions at the Namdong Asiad Rugby Stadium after he made contact with his opposing winger’s head.
It was a stark reality check of how the international rugby game has evolved in the last three years. This was the Hong Kong men’s first test match since 2019.
Despite the early setback, Hong Kong worked on their game plan of putting the ball behind the Korean pack and the whole team, man for man, gave their all on cover defence and in physical ball carries throughout the game.
Debutant fly-half Glyn Hughes opened the scoring in the 11th minute with his penalty giving Hong Kong a 3-0 lead, and the lead was extended to 8-0 as the forwards imposed themselves on the Korean pack that set up a rolling maul leading to hooker Alex Post crossing the try line. Hughes’ conversion went wide.
A yellow card to left-winger, Matt Worley, saw Hong Kong play out much of the half with 13 players. Worley made amends when he returned to the field just before halftime adding a second Hong Kong try, after some great team interplay, which was successfully converted by Hughes. 15-0 at half-time.
The Koreans wasted numerous opportunities in the humid conditions, spilling the ball on a few dangerous half-breaks, and their errors were compounded by some excellent scrambling defence from Hong Kong.
Korea eventually got on the board when lock Choi Seong Dook was the beneficiary of a farcical passage of kicking play to put Korea on the board at 15-7.
A sustained period of Korean pressure saw them add a penalty and an unconverted Kim Kwang Min try to set up a nervy final quarter with the scores tied at 15-15.
A Korean penalty allow them to take the lead for the first time, and they pushed ahead 18-15 with ten minutes left.
Buoyed by a loud crowd of over a thousand fans, Korea was applying pressure but Hong Kong patiently set up phases and earned penalties, before Nathan DeThierry, scored in the corner after a perfectly weighted kick pass from McNeish to help Hong Kong regain the lead, 20-18.
Korea came straight back at Hong Kong and earned a penalty from the restart in the 75th minute, to take the lead 21-20.
Hong Kong went searching for a winning score and forced another infringement from Korea in defence, in the dying seconds of the match, McNeish was offered a high-pressure chance to claim a win from the penalty tee.
With no time left on the clock, a tense Hong Kong team saw the ball sail through the posts to clinch an epic win, 23-21.
Additional reporting and images: HKRU
At its Annual Meeting in Dublin, World Rugby confirmed the locations for the next three women’s and two men’s Rugby World Cups:
World Rugby also confirmed a new partnership approach towards hosting the Rugby World Cup that looks to as they put it “stimulate the dynamic development of rugby globally and increase investment in the women’s game”. It was also confirmed that the 2025 Women’s World Cup will expand to 16 teams.
After the announcement, World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said: “Today, we have approved three exceptional Rugby World Cup host nations – England, Australia and USA – providing unprecedented certainty and an unparalleled opportunity to accelerate the growth and impact of rugby globally. It is great for rugby, for fans and for the host nations.”
“Today is a landmark moment for the sport and exciting development for fans. I would like to congratulate everyone involved in making this dream a reality as we look to deliver a truly global sport for all.”
“We are thrilled to be hosting Rugby World Cup 2025, it is going to be incredible,” said RFU Chief Operating Officer, Chief Finance Officer and former England captain Sue Day. “As we have seen from other home World Cups in cricket, hockey and netball, a Rugby World Cup will further advance all women’s sport.”
Rugby Australia Chairman Hamish McLennan said: “This is a historic day for rugby in Australia. We’re beyond thrilled to be welcoming not one, but two Rugby World Cups to our shores. It’s a game-changer for rugby in this country, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to revitalise and secure the future of the sport here and see the game we all love grow and thrive for years to come.”
“I speak for the rugby community and fans across the United States when I express our sincere gratitude to World Rugby for their trust and endorsement of our vision to grow this incredible sport exponentially across our country.” added USA Rugby Chief Executive Ross Young. “USA Rugby will now venture into a new era and ensure the sport’s most treasured event is a springboard for creating lasting, sustainable enthusiasm and passion for rugby from coast to coast.”
The postponed women’s Rugby World Cup 2021 will take place in New Zealand later this year with the final held at the iconic Eden Park in Auckland on xx November 2022.
If readers are interested in news and ticket information about future Rugby World Cups the sign up here www.rugbyworldcup.com/newsletter.
additional reporting, images: World Rugby
The 19th Asian Games, due to be held in Hangzhou in September, have been postponed to 2023 due to rising COVID-19 cases in China, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced on Friday. The new dates have yet to be confirmed.
“The Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee has been very well prepared to deliver the Games on time despite global challenges. However, the above decision was taken by all the stakeholders after carefully considering the pandemic situation and the size of the Games,” the OCA said in a statement.
Hong Kong’s sports sector lawmaker, Kenneth Fok, said it’s a pity that the Asian Games have been postponed, pointing out that athletes have been training for years for the games, “Hopefully, a new schedule can be announced soon so they can re-arrange their training.”
Image: Asian Games
