The inaugural All Girls Contact Rugby Tournament 2017 will be held in Singapore this weekend and will host 30 teams across four age groups, including teams from Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta and Australia. The tournament, hosted by the Tanglin Rugby Club, is the first ever combined Minis and Youth Girls tournament in South East Asia and will bring together 360 budding female rugby players in the U10s, U12s, U14s and U16s age range to showcase their talent as well as boost the reputation of women’s rugby across Asia.

The 7-a-side tournament will be held at Turf City, Singapore, on Saturday the 2^nd December, with each age grade team playing five games over the course of the day. Hong Kong will send 20 teams to compete, with players coming from eight different local club teams, Singapore have 7 teams, Australia have one team and Jakarta have two teams. After a joint pool party and buffet dinner in the evening, the girls will be back out on the pitch on Sunday for a day of a training and skills development.

Hong Kong-based Tournament Director Joe Stanion, first started organising the event in June of this year alongside his Singaporean co-director Ian Gibbs, and has watched it expand to be bigger than he ever expected, “this tour has lurched and surged to grow from 80, 100, 150, 180 etc to 360!” he said. “Girls rugby is growing and they need the bandwidth and depth that our boys traditionally enjoy. This tour shows them we care and we are investing in them.” With tournament turnover now exceeding HK$1.8 million, it certainly has been hugely successful in driving up recognition for the girls’ game.

As well as being a platform to showcase girls’ rugby in Asia, the tournament aims to provide the players with an opportunity to forge international rugby connections and friendships, help build stronger ties in the Asian rugby community, and encourage the best of rugby values such as fair play, camaraderie, team work, discipline and respect. The message from HKRU Director of Women’s Rugby Kim Boreham sums up the tournament nicely, “play hard, play fair and have fun!”

The tournament is also looking to raise funds to cover all costs to support the Orphan girls from Jakarta who rely on charitable donations to attend the tournament. Please help by donating any amount you can to the Tour Organisers. For more information please contact Joe Stanion [email protected]

The following clubs sent teams to the tournament:

South Lantau Buffaloes, Hong Kong Football Club, Flying Kukris, Discovery Bay Pirates, HKU Sandy Bay, Sai Kung Stingrays, USRC Tigers and Valley Fort