Hello for Hong Kong

Hello all!  My name is Carol and I’ll be corresponding to you from Hong Kong.

So, facts: Hong Kong, which is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China, has a separate national team and has competed in rugby from around the 1870’s, when it was under British rule.  Hong Kong currently holds regular competitions for women from senior level down to Under-6.  The SAR is about 1/3 the size of Rhode Island but with a population of over 7 million people; we recently set a world record when 2,610 mini (Under 12) players participated in a tournament.  At the senior level there are 49 men’s teams who compete in six divisions and 15 women’s teams who compete in two divisions.

Hong Kong is probably most well known for the Hong Kong Sevens, which is the largest sevens competition of the Sevens World Series, and features three days of rugby and an obscene number of British men in pink wigs and mini dresses.  The first international women’s sevens took place in Hong Kong in 1997, and was the result of efforts by USA’s Emil Signes and HK’s Ruth Mitchell (2011 IRB Women’s Personality of the Year).  Hong Kong has been included as part of the newly inaugurated IRB Women’s Sevens and the rugby community looks forward to welcoming participants and visitor’s to Asia’s world city!

In the coming future I will be posting about events leading to the Hong Kong Women’s Sevens as well as telling you a bit about life as a player in Hong Kong from the viewpoints of expat players as well as local women.  If you have particular questions feel free to leave me a line in the comments.