HONG KONG RUGBY CELEBRATES NEW YEAR IN STYLE!

05日 1月 2016

The Hong Kong rugby community made an impressive start to fulfilling the annual New Year’s resolution of growing the truly beautiful game of rugby in our home town with a packed holiday weekend of action at HKFC and King’s Park.

The 1st day of 2016 saw a healthy crowd of parents and enthusiasts enjoying 9 excellent games of 15s rugby at the Prudential New Year’s Day Youth Rugby Tournament down at Sports Road, while at King’s Park 25 tertiary institutions kicked-off three days of competition in the Standard Chartered Invitational Tertiary Sevens.

This was the 49th edition of the New Year’s Day tournament, and over that time the day has grown in pace with that of the youth game itself, from just a single Hong Kong v Overseas Schoolboys match back in 1967 right through to a full complement of boys and girls age grade fixtures from U12 through to U19; this year also saw the addition of a new U19 boys’ Warriors fixture, a recent Union initiative to encourage local player development. The early encounters of the day were dominated by the blue of the Lions, and it wasn’t until the Ladies U19 fixture that the Dragons finally got themselves a victory, picking up the Lassies Quaich with 19-10 in a match notable for having the Turner sisters, Anisha and Roshini lining up against each other in opposing teams! Whilst the Dragons secured one further “W” in the Warriors game, the Lions roared back in the final match-up of the day, with the Overseas boys taking the Middlesex/Wright/Naylor trophy with a very entertaining 28-22 win. The prestigious Larry Abel Award for the “Best & Fairest” player of the tournament went to Mark Coebergh, clearly a talented family with his younger brother also picking up an award earlier in the day.

Meanwhile up at King’s Park things were just hotting up, as 34 men’s and 20 women’s student teams played out a staggering 130 games over the weekend…the local Hong Kong universities and colleges were joined by overseas sides from Beijing, Xiamen, Singapore and Chinese Taipei, who collectively delivered a veritable festive feast of rugby! The Women’s Qualifier Division was won by HKIEd, and the Men’s Qualifier by Xiamen University, while in the main competition the Women’s Cup was taken by the Chinese Agricultural University from Beijing and the Men’s Cup was retained by the impressive CJCU team from Chinese Taipei, fielding a number of national players. The whole event was played in a tremendous spirit of friendship, which carried over to the post-tournament dinner, which was all you’d expect from over 500 students gathered together with access to free Carlsberg…

Huge thanks to all those who supported both these tournaments, in particular the Refs’ Society, the Medical and Physio teams, TheI therapists, all the coaches, managers, volunteer helpers, Union staff and of course our generous sponsors Prudential and Standard Chartered. Finally a special mention for our NYD Tournament Director Richard Thomas for all his hard work, and to HKFC for being superb hosts, as always.

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2016!


Prudential NYD Youth Rugby Tournament Results

Ladies U12 Roberts Shield
Island Lions 29 v Peninsula Dragons 0

Boys U12 Waterford Bowl
Island Lions 12 v Peninsula Dragons 5

Ladies U14 Overton Cup
Lions 27 v Dragons 5

Boys U14 Stuart Leckie Cup
Lions 41 v Dragons 14

Ladies U16 Naylor Cup
Lions 33 v Dragons 17

Boys U16 George White Trophy
Overseas Lions 15 v Hong Kong Dragons 5

Ladies U19 Lassies Quaich
Hong Kong Dragons 19 v Overseas Lions 10

Boys U19 Warriors Jin Si Trophy
Dragons 12 v Lions 7

Boys U19 Middlesex/Wright/Naylor Tropy
Overseas Lions 28 v Hong Kong Dragons 22

Larry Abel Award – Mark Coebergh
Standard Chartered Invitational Tertiary Sevens

Women’s Qualifier
Champion: HKIEd

Runners-up: Chinese University
Men’s Qualifier

Champion: Xiamen University
Runners-up: HKU SPACE

Women’s Elite
Champion: Chinese Agricultural University
Runners-up: HKIEd

Men’s Elite
Champion: CJCU
Runners-up: City University

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