This year the Prudential New Year’s Day Youth Tournament celebrates its 50^th anniversary, and to mark this momentous milestone we have been running a special feature every Wednesday for the past 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, a physio, a player and the tournament manager all share their reflections.

Rowena Myrans – National Team Physio

The Myrans family have had a variety of different roles in the New Years Day tournament over the years. My first memories of the tournament were sitting in the stands as a spectator. After all four of us kids had taken up mini rugby at Flying Kukris, my younger sister Lottie was the first to play in the New Years Day tournament. At this point my siblings and I were all fairly naive and were always full of concern for my Dad who was always very quiet and reporting having "food poisoning" from the night before.

In total over the years, we had Lottie who played five times and Jenny who played twice. A few years on and even though we no longer have anyone playing youth, we still find ourselves at Football Club every January 1st. I'm usually working as a team physio and my mum as a pitch side medic. Other duties our family have undertaken at the tournament include being a coach and a ball retrieval person.

The tournament always has a lovely sense of community and is a great way to start the New Year.

Andrew Chambers – former Hong Kong 7s and 15s international

Playing on NYD was always a great occasion for me. I think I hold a record that I never won on NYD for either HK or the OB. I was lucky to play for both sides as I left to Boarding school for 6th form. As a kid it was so great to play in front of a full HKFC. Getting your HK shirt and also your overseas boys shirt always gave you a sense of pride. Wether you were representing your school or HK it always added some great competive edge to the games and a year of bragging rights with your mates. As a kid it really was the highlight of my rugby calander and one I have very found memories of. Long may the day continue to generate great memories & lifetime friends.

Brandon Huang – HKRU Head of Community & Development

My first involvement with the NYD Tournament was way back in 1994 when I played for the Under 15 Overseas Schoolboys team – I had just returned to Hong Kong from New Zealand, and this was a great re-introduction to local rugby for me. Our team was coached by the legendary Trevor Gregory, so I’m sure we must have won the game! The following year I switched allegiance and ran out for the Hong Kong Schoolboys, and I remember lining up alongside another future Hong Kong international LI Cheuk-yin. Then in 1996 we were joined by the likes of Andy Yuen, Billy “Fei Gai” Leung and LIU Kwok-leung – all of us were to go on to play for Hong Kong, work for the Union, and we have been close friends ever since.

Together we helped Hong Kong U18s break a period of Overseas domination with victory in the 1997 tournament, and then I had a few years off before returning in 2004, this time as a tournament organiser in my new role with the Union. This will be my 18^th NYD Tournament in total, and they’ve all been memorable in one way or another, but I guess looking back 2005 was particularly special as Andy, Billy, Kwoky and myself were all back together, this time as coaches and officials – it really felt like we’d gone full circle!