Women’s Rugby Results – 20 November, 2021

Premiership

Kowloon 10-19 Valley Black
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:00

CWB Phoenix 0-58 USRC Tigers
@ Aberdeen Sports Ground, Kick-off: 18:00

HKFC Ice 17-5 Gai Wu Falcons
@ HK Football Club, Kick-off: 18:30

National League 2

Kowloon 7-0 Gai Wu Hawks
@ So Kon Po Recreation Ground, Kick-off: 13:30

Tai Po Dragons 34-0 Revolution Serenity
@ Tai Po Kwong Fuk Park, Kick-off: 15:00

City 14-12 CWB Lammergeier
@ Kowloon Tsai Sports Ground, Kick-off: 15:00

Tin Shui Wai 0-5 Disciplined Services
@ Tin Shui Wai Community Ground, Kick-off: 18:00

Police Sirens 40-0 Typhoons Thunder
@ Police Sports Ground, Kick-off: 18:00

Image: hkrugby

Women’s Rugby Results – 2 October, 2021

Premiership

HKFC Ice 25-10 Kowloon
@ HK Football Club, Kick-off: 13:30

USRC Tigers 14-15 Valley Black
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:00

CWB Phoenix 0-61 Gai Wu Falcons
@ So Kon Po, Kick-off: 18:00

HK womens premiership 4 october 2021

National League 2

CWB Lammergeier 0-12 Kowloon
@ So Kon Po, Kick-off: 13:30

Typhoons Thunder 0-40 Gai Wu Hawks
@ Kowloon Tsai Sports Ground, Kick-off: 15:00

City 10-5 Tin Shui Wai
@ Tai Hang Tung, Kick-off: 16:30

Police Sirens 27-0 Revolution Serenity
@ Police Recreation Club, Kick-off: 18:00

Disciplined Services RFC 5-0 Tai Po Dragon
@ Happy Valley, Kick-off: 18:00

HK womens National League 2 - 4 october 2021

Image: hkrugby

Women’s Rugby Results – 25 September, 2021

Premiership

Gai Wu Falcons 7-18 Valley Black
@ Shek Kip Mei, Kick-off: 18:00

CWB Phoenix 0-50 HKFC Ice
@ So Kon Po, Kick-off: 18:00

USRC Tigers 21-7 Kowloon
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:00

Image: hkrugby

Hong Kong Women’s Rugby Results – 18 September, 2021

Premiership

Gai Wu Falcons 0-22 USRC Tigers
@ Shek Kip Mei, Kick-off: 18:00

Kowloon 55-0 CWB Phoenix
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:00

Valley Black 12-11 HKFC Ice
@ Happy Valley, Kick-off: 18:00

Image: hkrugby

Aggie Poon Takes Charge

As a former 110 metre hurdler, Aggie Poon had the pace and the quick feet that made her perfectly suited to playing on the wing or at full-back.

Having debuted as a 20-year-old, Poon was a stalwart of the Hong Kong women’s team, in sevens and 15s and played at Rugby World Cup 2017 and three Asian Games and was Hong Kong’s Women’s Sevens Player of the Year in 2016.

A meniscus injury to her left knee, however, was one physical barrier Poon was unable to overcome and she was forced to retire in 2017, aged just 27, with 13 caps to her name.

Rather than limping away from the sport, the professional personal trainer used her knowledge of fitness and conditioning to get her knee right again and embark on a career in officiating.

“Some friends asked me why I did not go into coaching. It wasn’t the easiest decision to make between being a coach or a referee,” she admitted.

“I chose the latter because it would be difficult for me to balance the duties as a coach with my other commitments. Refereeing fitted into my schedule better.

“Also, every team player has her own personality and strengths. It’d require a lot of effort as a coach to design a programme that caters for every single team member.

“As a referee, it is just my problem, to prepare well and be better. I cannot put the blame on other people.”

Learning the Laws

Poon isn’t afraid to admit she did not know all the laws of the game while she was playing and continues to strive to get better.

“I thought that refereeing can enrich my understanding of the laws while learning a new skill. I probably knew 60 per cent when I was playing,” she said candidly.

“Doing the set-piece, which includes scrum and lineout, is harder than I expected because the positions I used to play were winger and full-back instead of scrum-half or forward.

“You never stop learning; you should always try and understand the laws of the game otherwise you will pay the price. When you know more and learn more you will be more confident on the pitch.

“I hope to help the players to be more familiar with the laws as well, as having a better understanding of how the game works will help them to improve their performance straight away.”

Poon was appointed to the Asia Rugby refereeing panel this year and says the Amsterdam Sevens is the most prestigious tournament she has refereed to date.

The 31-year-old was part of the Hong Kong women’s sevens team that got to the Rio 2016  repechage only to fall short of making it to the big event.

Tokyo came too soon in her referee development – she only took up the whistle just over three years ago – but Paris 2024 is a realistic aim.

“Refereeing at the Olympics and games at a global level is my goal. It’s a long-term aim as well as a long shot, and I have been equipping myself for it,” she said.

“I have been inspired by Gabriel Lee and Matthew Rodden as they were the two referees who represented Hong Kong at the world level. I know it is an ambitious goal but I’m trying my best to achieve it.”

Additional reporting, image: World Rugby

Hong Kong Women’s Rugby Results – 10 April 2021

Women’s Competition 1

HKFC Ice 7-19 Kowloon
@ HK Football Club, Kick-off: 17:00

Valley Black 41-0 CWB Phoenix
@ Happy Valley, Kick-off: 18:00

Image: hkrugby

Hong Kong’s Sevens Squads to Train in England

The limitations on competitive sport are impacting on domestic and international competition… So Hong Kong’s men’s and women’s sevens squads will travel to the United Kingdom and Portugal for an extended training camp in May and June.

Training and warm-up matches against international opposition are needed ahead of multiple upcoming tournaments including:

In August the World Rugby Challenger competition for spots on the World Sevens Series.

The 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou in September, where Hong Kong’s men’s sevens squad will be the defending champions, after taking Gold in Jakarta in 2018.

Hong Kong’s women finished in fifth place in Jakarta, and hope to improve on that in Hangzhou

The Rugby World Cup Sevens in South Africa in mid-September. Hong Kong have qualified for every Rugby World Cup Sevens since the inception of the world championship in 1993.

And lastly but by no means least the 45th Hong Kong Sevens in early November, the first international sevens competition to be held in the city in over 3½ years.

Cado Lee Ka Hong Kong Mens Sevens

Hong Kong Rugby Union General Manager of Performance Rugby James Farndon said, “As restrictions tighten in Hong Kong, many of the HKSI’s High Performance Sport Programmes are taking their athletes and coaches overseas to ensure that they can maintain competitive advantage for their respective international competitions.

“Given the importance of our upcoming international tournaments we believe that it is essential for the teams to have optimal preparation including matches against premier international competition. The HKSI’s approach to financially support overseas training camps like this is highly appreciated by the HKRU,” added Farndon.

Training in the United Kingdom also offers the opportunity to enter both teams into two events on the upcoming UK Super Sevens Series, which takes place in May and June across the United Kingdom, and into long-running international sevens warm-up tournaments in Lisbon and the Algarve in Portugal.  These will mark the first international competitions for the teams since November 2021.

The squads will depart on 6 May and will base at Loughborough University, an institution highly regarded for its sports programmes and with excellent training and rehabilitation facilities for the duration of the trip.

Additional reporting, images: HK Rugby

Tokyo Olympic Rugby 7s Repechage

World Rugby announced today that the repechage tournament for the Tokyo Olympic Games will take place in Monaco on 19-20 June, 2021.

With 21 of the 24 teams set to compete at the Tokyo Olympics next year already confirmed, the final qualification event will feature 12 women’s and 12 men’s teams all vying to secure the remaining two women’s and one men’s team places at the Olympic rugby sevens in Tokyo, which will take place on 26-31 July, 2021 at Tokyo Stadium.

The women’s competition features Argentina, Colombia, France, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Samoa and Tunisia. 

The men’s tournament will involve Brazil, Chile, China, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, Samoa, Tonga, Uganda and Zimbabwe.