Hong Kong national rugby union team

Hong Kong

Nickname(s)	Dragons
Emblem	Chinese dragon
Union	Hong Kong Rugby Union
Head coach	Leigh Jones
Captain	Nick Hewson
Most caps	David Lewis (55)
Top scorer	Rowan Varty (120)
Top try scorer	Rowan Varty (24)
Home stadium	Hong Kong Football Club Stadium
First colours Second colours
World Rugby ranking
Current	27 (as of 7th Feb 2017)
Highest	22 (2016)
Lowest	34 (2010)
First international
Hong Kong 11–5 Australian Universities (1934)
Biggest win
Hong Kong 164–13 Singapore (27 October 1994)
Biggest defeat
Japan 94–5 Hong Kong (22 May 2010)
World Cup
Appearances	0
Website	www.hkrugby.com

The Hong Kong national rugby union team, nicknamed the Dragons, represent Hong Kong in international rugby union. Hong Kong is one of the better rugby sides in Asia outside of Japan, and has consistently made the repechages of the Rugby World Cup qualifying. Rugby union in Hong Kong is administered by the Hong Kong Rugby Union since 1952, and competes annually in the Asia Rugby Championship.

Hong Kong has one of the oldest rugby traditions in Asia, having been played there since the 19th century, when British colonists arrived in Hong Kong and brought the sport with them. For a long time, rugby union in Hong Kong was traditionally associated with Hong Kong's British-descended, English-speaking class, but since the 1990s there has been extensive efforts to integrate the game to the Cantonese-speaking community, with a degree of success; the first of these players being "Rambo" Leung Yeung Kit. Hong Kong have improved in form recently, having finished in second place in the ARC in 2011, 2014, and 2015, and made it to the repechage of the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualifying, though lost to Uruguay 24 to 3.

History

Early history

According to old newspapers, rugby union in Hong Kong dates back to the late 1870s, which would establish Hong Kong as perhaps the oldest rugby playing nation in Asia. The players during this era were all British sailors and army/navy men, as well as police and merchant men. The first secretary of rugby in Hong Kong was Jock McGregor.^[1]

The first fixtures which predate the creation of the modern Hong Kong Rugby Union in 1952 took place from 1924 to 1949. An unofficial interport team from Hong Kong played Shanghai on various dates from 1924 to 1949, both teams being composed entirely of British expatriates living in said port cities; these fixtures ceased after the establishment of Communist rule in mainland China.^[2] In 1934, a Hong Kong team played against an Australia Universities team, running out victors 11 to 5.

After the establishment of modern Chinese borders, which before greyed the exact control a union had over territory in China, the Hong Kong Rugby Union was established in 1952; the continuation of British rule in China, as well as the flow of immigrants and capital from the mainland, as well as Hong Kong establishing itself as a major port, allowed the game to flourish, albeit mostly restricted to the white British community.

During this time frame the first official fixtures under the union took place. Hong Kong first received a NZ Universities team in 1958, losing 47 to nil. In 1958, Larry Abel, one of Hong Kong's earliest rugby pioneers, established mini rugby programmes and tournaments, and has been played annually to this day.^[3] In 1968, Hong Kong was one of the charter nations of the Asian Rugby Football Union, the others being Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea, and Thailand. Hong Kong won its first official fixture against Japan in 1969, by the score of 24 to 22 in Tokyo.

1970s

During the 1970s Hong Kong played against many of its other Asian neighbors which had a rugby history, these nations being Japan, South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Singapore. Hong Kong enjoyed and endured mixed success against its neighbors, finishing second in 1972, only to lose to Japan 16 to nil on home soil.

In 1976, the first ever edition of the Hong Kong Sevens was established, which was pivotal in strengthening the sport in Hong Kong. The concept was discussed by business partners Ian Gow and Tokkie Smith, who wanted to promote a viable rugby product in Asia. The first sponsors of this event were Cathay Pacific and Rothmans International, later replaced by The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. The first sides at this competition were Asian, as well as 2 representative sides from Australia and New Zealand. Soon, the competition grew to include teams from around the world before becoming an official part of the Rugby Sevens calendar.^[4]

1980s - 1990s

During the 1980s, Hong Kong lagged behind Japan and South Korea in terms of competition; Hong Kong was consistently beating other Asian nations but consistently finished in third places, whereas Japan and Hong Kong were consistently vying for the top crown. Hong Kong officially joined the IRB in 1988, allowing Hong Kong to compete in the Rugby World Cup, though they did not enter the competition to qualify for 1991.

The 1990s proved to be a much more fruitful decade for Hong Kong. Hong Kong played its first ever test match against a non-Asia-Pacific opponent in 1992, losing 16 to 23 to the United States in 1992 in Boxer Stadium, San Francisco. In the same year, Hong Kong finally broke through and reached the final of the Asia Rugby Championship, beating South Korea 20 to 13 before losing to Japan 9 to 37.

Some notable players during the 1990s who represented Hong Kong at the international level include Ashley Billington, David Lewis, Leung Yeung Kit, and Chan Fuk Ping.

Hong Kong participated in its first qualifying tournament for the Rugby World Cup in 1995, being drawn with Thailand and Singapore in its group. Hong Kong lost its opening fixture to South Korea 28 to 17 before beating its other opponents; Hong Kong therefore missed out on a spot at the 1995 Rugby World Cup. An impressive feat achieved during this campaign though was Ashley Billington's 10 tries versus Singapore on November 10, 1994, which is the most tries ever scored in a Rugby World Cup qualifier by a single player.

Through the 1990s, Hong Kong began organizing tests against non-Asian opponents. Opponents that were played were Namibia, Papua New Guinea, the United States, and Canada. Hong Kong recorded some famous victories, beating the USA Eagles on three occasions in the decade, including a victory in San Francisco, and beating Canada in 1998.

Despite major improvement in the 1990s, Hong Kong bottomed out in its qualifying group for the 1999 Rugby World Cup; Hong Kong beat its arch-nemesis South Korea, but lost to Japan and were upset by the Chinese Taipei; they finished fourth and missed on direct qualification and a repechage.

2000 - Present, the New Millennium

In 2000, Hong Kong made history when they played China in 2000; this was the first test Hong Kong played against a team from the Chinese mainland since 1949. The game was played in Shanghai to honor the old rugby matches between Hong Kong and Shanghai. China upset Hong Kong 17 to 15 that day.

Hong Kong struggled somewhat during the early 2000s; In 2001, Hong Kong were once again surprised by China, drawing at 25 points each in Guangzhou. Hong Kong were once again upset by the Chinese Taipei in the 2003 Rugby World Cup qualifiers, losing 20 to 15, although Hong Kong beat China for the first time in that same qualification. Hong Kong lost all its fixtures in the final round of the 2007 Rugby World Cup qualifying campaign, missing out again on repechage or qualification.

The 2011 qualifying campaign was similar; Hong Kong beat both South Korea as well as newcomers Kazakhstan, but lost a crucial fixture to the Arabian Gulf; due to bonus points, Kazakhstan advanced instead of Hong Kong to the repechage.

For the 2015 qualifiers, Hong Kong finally broke through. Hong Kong were drawn into a group including its traditional East Asian rivals Japan and South Korea as well as Sri Lanka and newcomers the Philippines. Hong Kong thrashed South Korea 39 to 6 in Hong Kong, as well as recording a resounding 108 to 0 victory over the Philippines. Hong Kong finished second, and qualified for the repechage as a result. In the repechage versus Uruguay, in Montevideo, Hong Kong held firm for the first half, only trailing 6 to 3; however, Hong Kong indiscipline, coupled with key players not being available meant that Hong Kong collapsed, losing 28 to 3, and bowing out of the qualifiers.

At the end of 2015, Hong Kong hosted the 2015 Cup of Nations, which included 3 other emerging nations: Portugal, Russia, and Zimbabwe. Hong Kong finished second, beating Portugal and Zimbabwe but losing to Russia. In 2016, Hong Kong hired Leigh Jones, Japan's defense coach who played a key role in Japan's epic upset of South Africa in the 2015 Rugby World Cup, to take the role of head coach and high performance in Hong Kong.^[5] In order to further build for future success, the HKRU, under the vision of Leigh Jones, launched its first fully professional 15s programme; the goal of the programme is to encourage domestic players to pursue rugby as a profession in Hong Kong, and long-term, create a professional competition akin to Japan's Top League.^[6]

Overall

World Rugby Rankings
Top 30 rankings as of 6 August 2017[7]
Rank	Change*	Team	Points
1		New Zealand	94.78
2		England	90.14
3		Ireland	85.39
4		Australia	84.63
5		South Africa	84.16
6		Scotland	82.47
7		Wales	81.73
8		France	79.63
9		Argentina	79.50
10		Fiji	79.48
11		Japan	73.79
12		Georgia	73.41
13		Tonga	71.72
14		Italy	71.00
15		Romania	70.27
16		Samoa	69.67
17		United States	65.84
18		Uruguay	63.15
19		Spain	63.15
20		Russia	63.13
21		Namibia	61.40
22		Germany	59.78
23		Canada	59.47
24		Hong Kong	58.66
25	1	Kenya	57.55
26	1	Portugal	57.26
27		Belgium	56.94
28		Chile	54.76
29		Brazil	54.50
30		Switzerland	53.63
*Change from the previous week

Below is table of the representative rugby matches played by a Hong Kong national XV to 1 May 2016.^[8][9][10]

Opponent	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win %	For	Aga	Diff
Arabian Gulf	6	4	2	0	66.66%	101	115	-14
Australian Universities	2	1	0	1	75.00%	14	8	+6
Belgium	3	2	1	0	66.66%	58	56	+2
Brazil	1	1	0	0	100.00%	37	3	+34
Canada	6	1	5	0	16.66%	99	182	-83
China	5	3	1	1	60.00%	615	65	+59
Chinese Taipei	18	12	5	1	66.66%	638	278	+360
Czech Republic	1	0	1	0	0.00%	5	17	-12
England XV	1	0	1	0	0.00%	0	26	-26
Fiji	3	0	3	0	0.00%	33	155	-122
France XV	1	0	1	0	0.00%	6	26	-20
Germany	2	0	2	0	0.00%	27	58	-41
Japan	28	5	22	1	17.85%	355	1203	-848
Japan XV	7	1	6	0	16.66%	74	244	-170
Junior Japan	1	0	1	0	0.00%	5	90	-85
Kazakhstan	5	4	1	0	80.00%	126	67	+59
Kenya	2	1	1	0	50.00%	54	51	+3
Kenya A	1	0	0	1	0.00%	18	24	-6
Malaysia	8	7	0	1	87.50%	329	41	+288
Netherlands	2	0	1	1	0.00%	10	25	-15
New Zealand U–23	1	0	1	0	0.00%	0	47	-47
New Zealand Universities	4	0	4	0	0.00%	17	113	-96
Norway	1	1	0	0	100.00%	59	17	+42
Papua New Guinea	2	2	0	0	100.00%	28	21	+7
Portugal	1	1	0	0	100.00%	13	6	+6
Russia	3	0	3	0	0.00%	51	99	-48
Scotland XV	1	0	1	0	0.00%	6	42	-36
Singapore	11	9	2	0	81.81%	506	97	+409
South Korea	28	12	16	0	24.85%	621	701	-80
Sri Lanka	8	8	0	0	100.00%	349	78	+271
Thailand	8	6	2	0	75.00%	283	87	+196
Tunisia	2	1	1	0	50.00%	34	41	-7
United Arab Emirates	5	5	0	0	100.00%	325	65	+285
Uruguay	1	0	1	0	0.00%	3	28	-25
United States	7	4	3	0	57.14%	191	152	+39
Wales XV	1	1	0	0	0.00%	3	57	-54
Zimbabwe	2	2	0	0	100.00%	52	18	+34
Total	189	94	89	6	49.73%	5135	4403	+732

Tournament history

Rugby World Cup

World Cup record									World Cup Qualification record
Year	Round	P	W	D	L	F	A		P	W	D	L	F	A
1987	Not invited								-
1991	Did not enter								Did not enter
1995	Did not qualify								3	3	0	1	354	67
1999	Did not qualify								3	1	0	2	39	88
2003	Did not qualify								4	3	0	1	81	42
2007	Did not qualify								4	2	0	2	79	243
2011	Did not qualify								4	2	0	2	65	133
2015	Did not qualify								9	5	0	4	333	201
2019	To be determined								To be determined
Total	0/8	0	0	0	0	0	0		27	16	0	11	951	774

Asian Rugby Championship

Asian Rugby Championship record
Year	Round	P	W	D	L	F	A
1972	Runner-up	3	2	0	1	35	22
1974	Fifth place	3	1	0	2	43	61
1978	Fifth place	3	0	1	2	9	26
1980	Third place	4	3	0	1	231	51
1982	Third place	4	3	0	1	76	41
1984	Fifth place	3	1	0	2	67	70
1988	Third place	4	3	0	1	61	76
1990	Third place	4	2	0	2	93	56
1992	Runners up	4	3	0	1	156	66
1994	Third place	4	3	0	1	354	67
1996	Third place	4	3	0	1	298	49
1998	Third place	3	1	0	2	39	88
2000	Fourth place	3	0	0	3	47	136
2002	Third place	3	1	0	2	50	85
2004	Third place	2	1	0	1	75	47
2006–07	Third place	2	0	0	2	8	75
2008	Third place	4	2	0	2	96	154
2009	Fourth place	4	1	0	3	110	126
2010	Third place	4	2	0	2	65	133
2011	Runners-up	4	3	0	1	155	61
2012	Third place	2	2	0	2	159	98
2013	Third place	4	2	0	2	134	108
2014	Runners-up	4	3	0	1	196	65
2015	Runners-up	4	1	1	2	64	111
Total	0 titles	83	43	2	38	2618	1872

Players

Current squad

Hong Kong's squad for the 2016 Asian Rugby Championship.^[11]

Head Coach: Leigh Jones

Forwards Player Position Club Lachlan Chubb Hooker Hong Kong Scottish Tony Wong Ho-yeung Hooker Valley RFC Rohan Cook Prop Hong Kong Cricket Club Jack Parfitt Prop Hong Kong Scottish Jamie Tsang Prop University of Worcester Alex Ng Wai Shing Prop Valley RFC Leon Wei Hon Sum Prop Valley RFC Adrian Griffiths Lock Unassinged Ben Higgins Lock Valley RFC Jack Delaforce Lock Hong Kong Cricket Club Paul Dwyer Lock Hong Kong Cricket Club Henjo van Niekerk Lock USRC Tigers RFC James Cunningham Flanker Kowloon RFC Toby Fenn Flanker Valley RFC Matt Lamming Flanker Hong Kong Cricket Club Dan Falvey Number eight Hong Kong Football Club Nick Hewson (c) Number eight Valley RFC

Backs Player Position Club Jaime Hood Scrum-half Hong Kong Football Club Cado Lee Ka-to Scrum-half USRC Tigers RFC Adam Rolston Scrum-half Valley RFC Ben Rimene Fly-half Valley RFC Niall Rowark Fly-half Hong Kong Football Club Jamie Robinson Centre Hong Kong Cricket Club Ryan Meacheam Centre Valley RFC Tyler Spitz Centre USRC Tigers RFC Lex Kaleca Centre USRC Tigers RFC Lee Jones Wing Valley RFC Tom McQueen Wing Hong Kong Cricket Club Salom Yiu Kam Shing Wing Valley RFC Tom McColl Wing Hong Kong Football Club Rowan Varty Fullback USRC Tigers RFC Alex McQueen Fullback Hong Kong Cricket Club

Notable former players

The Hong Kong Rugby Union has inducted 16 players into its Hall of Fame as part of its Roll of Honour. Some of these players include;

• Larry Abel, pioneer of youth rugby in Hong Kong.
• Ashley Billington, wing who holds the record for most tries scored in an international match.
• Rambo Leung Yeung Kit, first Chinese player to represent Hong Kong at international level.
• David Lewis, most capped player for Hong Kong at 55 appearances.

See also

• Rugby union in Hong Kong
• Hong Kong Sevens
• Hong Kong national rugby sevens team
• Hong Kong national under-20 rugby union team
• Hong Kong women's national rugby union team
• Hong Kong women's national rugby sevens team
• List of Hong Kong national rugby union players

References

External links

• Hong Kong Rugby Union Homepage
• Hong Kong Sevens
• Facebook Page