This year the Prudential New Year’s Day Youth Tournament celebrates its 50^th anniversary, and to mark this momentous milestone we will be running a special feature every Wednesday over the next 6 weeks.

Read as some of our international stars, past and present, share the memories of their own New Year’s Day experiences as we look back on five decades of rugby history…

This week, former Hong Kong national 15s team captain, Jon Abel.

I had the pleasure of being involved in New Years Day rugby for about 8 years, finishing up in 1997. I saw things from both sides, being a Hong Kong schoolboy I couldn’t stand the boarding school kids who came back for the holidays, then I became one of those “arrogant” overseas schoolboys for a few years and finally in 1997 in my final year I played for, and captained the Hong Kong U19’s side.

It was the highlight of the rugby calendar back in those days as there were virtually no matches played for the younger age groups prior to 1997. Being able to “represent” Hong Kong and to be presented with your New Years day jersey was a huge honour. It was the only opportunity that we were given as Hong Kong schoolboys to wear the HKRFU dragon on our chests and I remember wearing that jersey with pride when I went overseas to boarding school and training in my HK Schoolboys jersey in England.

As an overseas schoolboy being part of a team who would get together only a handful of times prior to our big match was a very unique experience. Having the opportunity to play with guys who were playing all over the world for 80 minutes gave closeness and “Barbarian” like unity to the team. Wearing our overseas schools socks on New Years day gave us all that sense of individuality and peacocking that we so desired as young teenagers and running out onto the pitch under lights in the latter stages of the tournament gave us all a huge buzz. It was our Everest! Having friends and family there cheering us on in what was the biggest fixture of the year was at the time the most incredible feeling and certainly one that gave us all a massive sense of pride and passion for the annual spectacle that any teenage rugby player wanted to be involved in. It was the only place any self-respecting rugby player would want to be seen at the start of every New Year.

The tournament has had a magnificent half century and I hope it remains a day on which the superstars of tomorrow can create a lifetime of memories and lifelong teammates as it did for me.