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Rugby Union Domestic League Structure Changed to Support National Team

The Hong Kong Rugby Union has announced the schedule for the upcoming HKRU Domestic League. While similar on the surface to last season’s competition, the 2015/16 season ushers in some profound and long-term changes in the structure of local rugby.

Primary amongst these changes is the decision made jointly by the HKRU and its member clubs to ring-fence the Men’s Premiership around the six existing Premiership clubs at both Premiership and Premiership A levels for the coming three seasons.

Valley RFC, HKCC, Hong Kong Football Club, Hong Kong Scottish, Kowloon and USRC Tigers retain their Premiership spots for the coming season and will maintain this status for three years.

Dai Rees, General Manager, Rugby Performance at the HKRU, commented on the changes saying, “The objective is to ensure a stable competition that is structured around two performance leagues, Premiership and Premiership A, and supported by a development and community league structure that will ultimately contribute to the national team and high performance rugby in Hong Kong.

“These changes are a culmination of months of consultation with local clubs to secure their buy-in. As a result the final structure places significant emphasis on establishing clear playing levels, with Hong Kong’s elite level rugby ring-fenced around the clubs participating in the Premiership and Premiership A leagues,” Rees said.

The Premiership and Premiership A leagues will now mirror each other with club fixtures played at the same location each week. The new structure will allow the Premiership teams in these leagues to support each other on any given league weekend and maximize the development of their performance players.

Below Premiership A level, National League 1 will become a feeder system and development structure grooming potential high performance players who aspire to play Premiership rugby.

National League 1 will feature nine teams, headlined by Tin Shui Wai Pandas, who voluntarily relinquished their Premiership A spot to support the wider objectives of Hong Kong Rugby.

Discovery Bay Pirates, SCAA Causeway Bay, Gai Wu, University Wizards, Valley Mavericks, PLA and two Hong Kong Football Club sides round out the National League 1 competition this season.

The Championship Club league has also been revamped for 2015/16 with nine clubs: City RFC, Discipline Services XV, East Kowloon, Gai Wu Crusaders, Kowloon Barbarians, Revolution, Tai Po Dragons, Tin Shui Wai 2nd XV, and USRC Tigers Development taking part.

The modified Championship Club structure sees that league now highly focused on serving as an entry point and breeding ground for Chinese players, with all teams required to include a minimum of 14 ethnic Chinese players in each match day squad.

Following the amendments to the structure, the National and Championship Club leagues are now clearly identified as development competitions entering the season, with the aim to establish partnerships and mutually sustainable links with Premiership teams and to provide a clear and direct player pathway through to performance level rugby in Hong Kong.

National League and Championship Clubs sides will work closely with the HKRU to identify potential performance players. A new dual registration system will allow Premiership clubs to register and develop these players with nominated players allowed to play at both levels in a given season while officially remaining with their mother club.

Already there are signs of progress with U20s stand-out Eric Kwok Pak Nga, who developed his game at City RFC, now seconded to USRC Tigers in a move that has greatly hastened his development. Kwok was named the 2014/15 HKRU Development Player of the Year and is currently in the elite rugby sevens athlete programme at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, having represented Hong Kong in the Junior World Rugby Trophy and as vice captain for the men’s U20s sevens team which defended its Asian sevens title in August.

HKRU league competition rules continue to emphasise the selection and development of local talent with the Premiership rules requiring 12 of the 22 or 23 players selected (depending on the team’s front row configuration) for a league fixture to be eligible to represent Hong Kong.

The HKRU will continue to work in partnership with its member clubs to identify future strategic directions after the coming three seasons as it continues to refine and strengthen its development structures.

Complimenting the league’s move towards enhancing the stability of domestic Rugby and further preparing Hong Kong players for international competition, the HKRU will be announcing several other transformative development initiatives in the coming weeks.

Super Saturday marks 2015/16 Season Start
The Premiership will be played over 15 rounds with break for the Asia Rugby Sevens Olympic Qualifiers on 7-8 November at the Hong Kong Stadium and for the Cup of Nations (13-21 Nov) at Hong Kong Football Club when Hong Kong will face off with Russia, Portugal and Zimbabwe.

The 2015/16 HKRU season will kick off with a Super Saturday on 3 October, gathering all six Premiership and Premiership A teams for a triple trio of rugby excitement at King’s Park. Admission is free.

Towards the business end of the season, a quarterfinals competition will be held with the top two teams entering the quarterfinals (27 February) receiving a first round bye. The semifinals will be held on 5 March with the Grand Final on 12 March.

Cup Final Video as Hong Kong beat China to Win the China Sevens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lypniCVnRr4

51 HKG v CHN Women Cup Final (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lypniCVnRr4)

Watch the Cup Final as Hong Kong beat China to win the China Sevens. The Asia Rugby youtube channel has videos of all the matches at the recent tournament. The semi-final victory over Japan is if anything the more impressive match result.

A fantastic result, congratulations ladies!!!

Hong Kong Win the Women’s Seven Series – China Sevens

Hong Kong Win the Women’s Seven Series 26-15 over China
It’s the first ever Cup win for the Hong Kong women in the Asia Seven Series
Absolutely brilliant rugby from Hong Kong including a hat-trick from Aggie Poon in the final

Asia Rugby Women’s Sevens Series – China Sevens

Hong Kong’s women 7s team convincingly won all three of its pool games at the Asia Rugby Women’s Sevens Series – China Sevens being held in Qingdao over the weekend of the 5-6 September, 2015.

Aggie Poon scored 7 tries in the opening two games against Singapore and Sri Lanka as Hong Kong ran out convincing winners in both games.

In the final game of the day against pool top seed China, Hong Kong triumphed 19-12 in a hard fought game.

Stephanie Cuvelier picked up a brace of tries as returned to the Hong Kong team after a 2 year injury break

Saturday Pool Results

Hong Kong 53 – 0 Singapore
Hong Kong
Try: Aggie Pak Yan Poon (4), Stephanie Cuvelier (2), Amelie Odile Marie Seure, Ka Yan Chong, Natasha Olson-Thorne
Conversion: Aggie Poon (2), Colleen Tjosvold, Amelie Odile Marie Seure

Hong Kong 27 – 5 Sri Lanka
Hong Kong
Try: Aggie Pak Yan Poon (3), Natasha Olson-Thorne, Wai Sum Sham
Conversion: Aggie Pak Yan Poon
Sri Lanka
Try: Madduma Muthugalage Ayesha Sewwandi Perera

Hong Kong 19 – 12 China
Try: Natasha Olson-Thorne, Colleen Tjosvold, Tsz Ting Cheng
Conversion: Aggie Pak Yan Poon (2)

Images courtesy HKRFU

Olympic Sevens Qualifier Tickets Onsale 14 August

An anonymous source has informed bc that tickets for the Women’s and Men’s Olympic Rugby 7s Qualifier tournament on the 7-8 November at the HK Stadium will go onsale on the 14th August from Ticketflap (www.ticketflap.com).

That 24 hours before the tickets are scheduled to go onsale there’s been no announcement to public is another example of the Union unable to organise a piss-up in a brewery. This despite rugby’s renowned enjoyment of the personal waitress service and beverages that many Wanchai and Angeles’s breweries offer.

While tickets prices were released weeks ago, $360 (2-day pass), $200 (1-day pass), there’s been no information from the HKRFU or Asia Rugby about the number of tickets for public sale. There should though, be more than the 3000/day HK Sevens tickets that the public were allowed to maul over in March.

The women’s qualifier is an 8 team event, the first part of a two leg qualification process that culminates in Tokyo on 28-29 November 2015. Teams competing in the women’s event are China, Hong Kong, Japan, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Uzbekistan.

Teams competing in the men’s event are Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Thailand and China

Asia Rugby Sevens Olympic Qualifier
Date: 7-8 November, 2015
Venue: HK Stadium
Tickets: $360 (2-day pass), $200 (1-day pass), under 12 free from Ticketflap
More info: Public sale from 14 August

Asia Rugby 7s Qualifier – Tickets

Tickets for the Asia Rugby 7s Qualifier on 7/8 November in the Hong Kong Stadium will go on sale next week through Ticketflap. This tournament will determine which Asian men’s and women’s teams will be playing in the first ever Olympic Rugby Sevens in Rio next year – it doesn’t get any bigger than that!!!

Exact details, date, time etc when we have them

Tickets for the two day Asia Olympic Sevens Qualifier are priced at $360 for a 2 day pass and $200 for a day pass. The two day tournament will feature the men’s and women’s Rio2016 Asia qualification matches.

The men’s tournament is a 12 team event featuring with the men’s winner claiming Asia’s sole automatic slot amongst the 12 teams participating in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where Rugby Sevens will make its much anticipated debut. Competing to be Asia’s representative will be China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand

Already qualified for the men’s competition are Fiji, New Zealand, South Africa, Great Britain, USA, Argentina and the hosts Brazil. The remaining five places will be awarded to the winners of regional qualifiers in Europe, Oceania, Africa and the Hong Kong tournament for Asia as well as the winner of a 16-team international repêchage tournament to be held later in the year.

The winner heading to Rio to join New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Colombia, USA, France and hosts Brazil who have already booked their spots at the 2016 Olympic Games

“The opportunity to participate in an Olympic Games is the ultimate dream for any athlete, and we are totally focused on preparing for the November tournaments,” commented women’s sevens veteran Cheng Ka Chi.

Asia Rugby Sevens Qualifier
Date: 7-8 November, 2015
Venue: HK Stadium
Tickets: $360 (2-day pass), $200 (1-day pass), under 12 free.
More info: Exact details of the ticket buying process have yet to be released

Olympic Rugby Sevens Qualifier: 7-8 November, 2015

http://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2015/HK-Womens-Sevens-HKFC-2015/48253501_bZdxnd#!i=3956038898&k=s9rDWmr

Tickets for the two day Asia Olympic Sevens Qualifier on the 7-8 November will go on sale in August priced at $360 for a 2 day pass and $200 for a day pass. The two day tournament will feature the men’s and women’s Rio2016 Asia qualification matches.

The winner heading to Rio to join New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Colombia, USA, France and hosts Brazil who have already booked their spots at the 2016 Olympic Games

Hong Kong Cup of Nations – 13, 17, and 21 November 2015

A new four team round-robin tournament will make it’s debut this November, when Portugal, Russia and Zimbabwe will travel to Hong Kong for the 15-a-side Hong Kong Cup of Nations. The World Rugby-sanctioned competition will feature six matches played over three days.

HKRFU General Manager of Performance Rugby Dai Rees is enthusiastic about the new tournament, saying, “We have been working with World Rugby for a number of years to formalise a competition for Performance 2 and 3 level unions to ensure that we play the number of annual matches recommended by World Rugby for countries that aspire to reach the Rugby World Cup. To reach the recommended seven to ten annual fixtures, we need to combine our Asia Rugby Championships campaign – which is four matches in the spring – with touring or bringing in international teams for home tests in November” said Rees.

Russia is the highest ranked team competing in the Cup of Nations, currently 19th in the World Rugby standings. Portugal is ranked 23 and Zimbabwe is 28. Hong Kong moved up two spots to 25th in the world after finishing second in the Asia Rugby Championship.

“The teams invited to participate in the Cup of Nations are all ranked between 18 and 28 in the world, providing broadly competitive fixtures for Hong Kong. All four teams, including Hong Kong, advanced deep into the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualification process but ultimately didn’t qualify. We want to play against teams just outside of the Rugby World Cup rankings, which is about the top 16 or 18 teams in the world, to engage in meaningful and competitive fixtures,” Rees added.

“From a scheduling standpoint, the rugby calendar will look quite good for Hong Kong with the Cup of Nations giving us another opportunity for intense competition at the beginning of our domestic season and six months on from the Asia Rugby Championship” Rees continued. “We want to push and pressurise ourselves over the coming few years. Having three teams of the calibre of Russia, Portugal and Zimbabwe coming here six months after the Asia Rugby Championship window will help us maintain intensity as we increasingly focus on our high-performance 15s programmes,” said Rees who sees these opportunities as really important for Hong Kong in preparation for the qualification campaign for Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan.

Match schedules and venues will be announced in due course.

Lets hope that a similar women’s tournament can be arranged on the same dates!