Chief Executive Carrie Lam took time out of her busy schedule last Friday to join a reception hosted by the HKRU to celebrate some recent notable recent rugby success.

Together with other special guests that included Timothy Fok and Herman Hu of the SF&OC they heard Peter Duncan, HKRU President, and Pieter Schats, HKRU Chairman, pay tribute to the accomplishments of both the Hong Kong national men’s Sevens team in the Asian Games and also the Hong Kong Fire Services Sevens team in the World Fire Fighters Games.

For the Firemen, 2018 was 5th time they had participated in the World Fire Fighters Games Rugby 7s, a multi-sports event held every 2 years which brings together around 5,000 firemen and women from around the world in a celebration of camaraderie, professional pride and sporting excellence.  Hong Kong had previously won the Bronze in 2010, but on this occasion, with the Games held in Korea, they went all the way and brought home their first Gold!

This success is very much a reflection of how strongly rugby has developed throughout the Disciplined Services in Hong Kong, with every service now fielding their own teams and participating in the 3 annual Inter-Disciplined Services touch rugby tournaments. 

There is also a combined Disciplined Services rugby team that participates in the Hong Kong domestic league competition, and at the last World Police & Fire Games in Los Angeles the Disciplined Services women’s team won gold in the rugby 7s competition – the next World Police and Fire Games will be held in Chengdu in China in 2019.

For our Asian Games men’s team, they had won the silver medal at the 2010 and 2014 Games, on both occasions losing out to Japan in the final.  This time in Jakarta the hard work of the players, coaches, and all the support staff at both the Hong Kong Sports Institute and the HKRU paid off as Hong Kong finally got the upper hand defeating Japan 14-0 to secure Hong Kong’s first ever team event Gold medal, a truly significant sporting milestone for our city.

Chairman Schats concluded by paying tribute to all who had contributed to the Golds, noting that success is invariably built on team work, and in particular thanking “…our friends from the HK Sports Institute and the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee for all their ongoing support, the Fire Services senior management and indeed all the various Government Departments who we work closely with, and our club chairmen and women who provide the backbone of our sport here in the community.”