The Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU) inducted the latest members into its Hall of Fame at last night's end-of-season Awards Dinner, which also saw presentations made for the year’s top performers in the local leagues.

Societe Generale Valley swept the Domestic Coach of the Year awards for a second year running with Jack Isaac and Chris Garvey named the Men’s and Women’s Premiership Coaches of the Year while Sabre Kowloon No.8 Rory Martyn-Smith and Tammy Lau Nga Wun, front row forward for League and Grand Championship runners-up CPM Gai Wu Falcons, claimed Player of the Year honours in the Men’s and Women’s Premiership.

Nine new members were inducted into the HKRU Hall of Fame last night, making a total of 28 members to date. This year’s intake focused on some influential players across both men and women and sevens and fifteens, with seven of the nine having represented Hong Kong. Referees were also well represented with three new members inducted in Lt Commander Harry J Brickwood MBE, RN, Bill Mason and Tobi Lothian.

HKRU inducts third class into Hong Kong Rugby Hall of Fame

Lt Commander Harry J Brickwood MBE, RN was attached to the then Royal Navy Base at Tamar in Hong Kong from 1974 through 1987. As an RFU qualified referee, he was involved with the Hong Kong Society of Rugby Union Referees as both a match official and a referee coach. To this day his service to refereeing is memorialized by the Harry Brickwood Trophy presented each year to the referee who has contributed most throughout the season to the spirit of the Society. Brickwood refereed at the inaugural 1976 Hong Kong Sevens and was a key proponent of Schools rugby. He coached at St Georges School, which served the children of British Forces personnel from 1955 to 1997 and served on the Schools Rugby Committee. He was made a life member of the Royal Navy Rugby Union in 1977. After leaving Hong Kong in 1987 he served as Navy Rugby Secretary from 1988 to 1994.

Tobi Lothian, the current President of the Hong Kong Society of Rugby Union Referees, was the top ref of his era and remains the last local referee to officiate the World Rugby Sevens Series competition in Hong Kong. He also refereed numerous internationals here and throughout the region as a member of the Asia Rugby panel and officiated the 2013 Natixis Cup the first French professional club match played in Asia.

Bill Mason, a former Hong Kong international, graduated to the refereeing ranks after retiring as a player, going on to become one of Hong Kong’s top referees and handling numerous test matches as well as refereeing in the Hong Kong Sevens.

Five of the seven players inducted into the Hall made their mark at both sevens and fifteens: Craig Pain, Vaughn Going, Stephen Kidd, Simon Leung Ho Yam and Karen ‘Lola’ Williams.

Craig Pain anchored what was a golden era for the Hong Kong National Sevens team, representing the territory from 1987 through to 1993, captaining the side on several occasions including at the first Rugby World Cup Sevens in Scotland in 1993. Playing alongside fellow Hall of Fame members Ian Strange and Stuart Krohn, Pain was a part of the squad that won Hong Kong’s only two Plate victories at its home sevens, beating Japan and Tonga in the 1990 and 1992 Plate finals. He was a key contributor to the national XV in the same period. He coached the Hong Kong Sevens team at the Hong Kong and Beijing Sevens events in 2002, after which he emigrated to Australia.

Vaughn Going and Stephen Kidd were key members of the Hong Kong international sides of the 1990s both of whom arrived from New Zealand in the 1994 season. Going, a fullback, was capped 17 times during the Colony era including the heady days of the Pacific Rim, when Hong Kong regularly beat the USA, Canada, Japan and teams from the Pacific Islands. After leaving Hong Kong, he went on to play over 100 first class matches in England and France, turning out for Harlequins, London Welsh, Sale and the Northampton Saints in the English Premiership and Bezier in France. He retired from rugby in 2007 as the oldest player in that season’s Premiership.

Kidd, a scrum-half whose career in Hong Kong was at times derailed by injury, was another influential member of the national XV in the Pacific Rim era and captained Hong Kong at both sevens and fifteens. He played 29 Tests, and represented Hong Kong on five occasions at the Sevens, including the 1997 Rugby World Cup when Hong Kong reached the plate final. He was a member of the Hong Kong bowl-winning sides at the Sevens in 1994 and 1995.

Another versatile player of more recent vintage, Simon Leung Ho Yam, was also inducted into the Hall of Fame. Leung made his fifteens debut against in 2006 as a loose-head prop, before reversing rugby’s traditional evolutionary process by moving to the back row later in his career. Leung amassed 25 caps and captained the side at both sevens and fifteens including leading the team in Hong Kong’s silver medal-winning sevens campaigns at the East Asian Games (2009) and Asian Games (2010).

Also inducted into the Hall was prop Peter Spizzirri, an ironman in local rugby circles. Spizzirri excelled across a decade of elite front row rugby, being capped for the first time in 2002 and consistently anchoring the SAR pack through to his retirement in 2011. He played in 41 of Hong Kong’s total 77 test matches played through 2011. Domestically, Spizzirri played for Kowloon, Valley and Hong Kong Football Club, enjoying his greatest success with Valley in a run that featured multiple grand championship titles. Spizzirri has continued his involvement with Hong Kong rugby since his retirement, with roles in several Hong Kong Women’s and National Age Grade coaching teams.

Karen ‘Lola’ Williams arrived in Hong Kong to play for the then Arabian Gulf Rugby Union in the first ever Hong Kong Women’s Rugby Sevens in 1997 and settled in Hong Kong the following year, playing for Aberdeen. Williams would go on to play an influential role in the early development of the women’s game in Hong Kong and represented the SAR in both sevens and fifteens. She was also the captain of the National XV and coached the Hong Kong Women’s Rugby Sevens team. After retiring from playing, Williams became a key driver in the development of Schools rugby for girls and has played a major role in the rapid development of girls rugby at the Sai Kung Stingrays.

HKRU recognise season’s best performers with End of Season Awards

The HKRU also presented its end-of-season awards at last night’s dinner. Valley swept the Premiership coaching awards, with Men’s and Women’s Premiership coaches Jack Isaac and Chris Garvey winning the award for a second year running. Isaac led Valley’s Men’s Premiership side to the club’s first league title since 2009 and their fourth successive Grand Championship title, incurring just one defeat in the season-long campaign. That stellar record was bettered only by the Valley Women’s Premiership XV which, under Garvey’s tutelage, completed its second straight season without a loss – the longest winning streak in Hong Kong rugby history.

Sabre Kowloon’s 22-year-old No.8 Rory Martyn-Smith was named the Men’s Premiership player of the season, having turned in match-winning performances week in, week out for his team. Martyn-Smith, a former U18s player for Leicester, topped the stats for Kowloon across several areas this season, with his campaign highlights including making 28 individual tackles in a single game.

CPM Gai Wu Falcons forward Tammy Lau Nga Wun claimed the honours in the women’s category for her outstanding contribution to the team’s impressive season. Lau is not only a powerhouse in the front row for Gai Wu, one of Hong Kong women’s rugby’s pre-eminent sides, she is also a core part of the Hong Kong Women’s National XV.

Pierce Mackinlay-West, who was a mainstay for the Natixis HKFC Premiership XV this season, won the Tony Ho Award for Development Player of the Year. Mackinlay-West is currently captain of the Hong Kong U20s side taking part in the World Rugby U20 Trophy in Zimbabwe.

Valley’s Zoe Smith took the Women’s Development Player of the Year award, after putting an eye-catching 93 points on the board for her team over the year. Smith propelled Valley Red from a ninth-placed finish last season to the side’s first Grand Championship appearance in 2016 with last-minute game-winning penalties in both the quarter and semi finals of the Grand Championship.

Faa’manu Wesley Feausi, Club Coaching Officer at Gai Wu, won the Development Coach of the Year award for his high-octane work with the men's team while Yuen Ho Yin took the equivalent honours for Comvita City Ladies. A long-serving coach of City Ladies, Yuen patiently built his team from scratch growing from six players in a combined team with Valley a few seasons ago to fielding a full fifteens squad and a team in the Women’s Tens competition this season. His effort was rewarded when City Ladies won their first ever National League 1 Grand Championship title this season.

On the heels of being appointed to referee at the debut Rugby Sevens competition at the Rio Olympic Games, Gabriel Lee Wing Yi was named Referee of the Year. Terry Sibanda of Sai Kung Stingrays and Andrew Lin of Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers shared the award for Girls Youth Coach of the Year, while Hong Kong national team member Jamie Hood collected the same accolade in the Boys category. Guy Green of HKU/Sandy Bay won the Mini Volunteer of the Year award.

The Joel Dunn Award for Services to Rugby was presented to long-serving youth rugby national team manager Paul Renouf, who was typically away on duty with the Hong Kong National Age Grade programme, serving as team manager of the Hong Kong U20s team presently competing in the World Rugby U20 Trophy in Zimbabwe.