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Hong Kong Rugby League - Kicks off in 2024

HKRL 9s TEAM ANNOUNCEMENTS

http://www.hongkongrugbyleague.com

Joining reigning champions Diamond Chiefs, HK Charlie Bears and Oreana Storm in this year's 9s include founding rugby league club Wan Chai Warriors, Pacific Toa, Coastal Cobras, a first rugby league outing for Wavewearers and a community development team from Tonga! And we expect more teams to confirm their participation in the coming weeks.

The HKRL 9s now in its fourth edition will take place on Sunday 27 May at King's Park.

Tonga will take part in their first HKRL 9s and join other overseas teams from Papau New Guinea and Australia continuing the development of the 9s into an international tournament. We know little about the Tonga team but expect them like all Tonga RL teams to be big, fast and strong.

Wan Chai Warriors return for their fourth HKRL 9s and despite containing HK international test players Lawrence Tuck and Jason Yip face a tough day at the office with a number of players switching allegiance to play for Pacific Toa and Oreana Storm.

Pacific Toa primarily made up of Pacific Islanders head into the comp as one of the favourites with HK internationals Tavita Tanielu and Hogan Toomalatai leading the charge. Pacific Toa versus Tonga is certain to make the hairs on your back stand up.

Coastal Cobras return, led by captain Conor Cairns and are looking for players, if you are interested please get in touch.

Good luck to all teams as they battle it out for the James Hall trophy.
 
HKRL & HKTag Chairman Neville Metcalfe updates us on some of the exciting events coming up.

Places still available in the 'league' teams for both women and men so email us now at info@hongkongrugbyleague.com.

Stay tuned for more details on training, team previews & see you at the Nines !!!

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Hong Kong Rugby League 17 man squad named.

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Congratulations to all 17 players, many who return for their second international test match including the bulldozer Ben Ryan and Toby Leiwho are traveling from Australia.

Ringo Lung keeps the captaincy and is joined by senior players, Jason Yip and JJ Nielsen with Gus Spence proving the old adage that if you're good enough you're old enough. Hogan Toomalatai, Richard Lindsay, Alvin Chan, and Mouclier Ben all also return whilst there are new call ups for Ghislain Baleyte, Craig McCurrich, Dylan Navra, Alexander Shvets and Tommy Wong who will earn their first International cap. Head coach Jason Fairleigh also makes his international debut.

The team are currently training well in the searing heat of Hong Kong which should condition them for conditions in Tokyo in June.

Head coach Jason Fairleigh had a few words to say about the current squad:

“It is a young group, but with some really important senior players so I feel the balance of the squad is good, both in terms of its experience, its character and also the positional balance. We have been working hard on improving our flaws from the first game and hope to come away with the win in Japan."

The game is the last international for Hong Kong before they compete in September's Emerging Nations World Championship in Sydney.
 
Teams announced for first ever Women’s Nines Rugby League domestic competition

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HKRL are proud to partner with Wanchai Stadium, Wanchai’s premier sports bar, to launch women’s rugby league in Hong Kong.

The Wanchai Stadium Women’s Nines Battle of Origin will take place between North and South Hong Kong on Sunday 27 May 2018 at 6pm (full schedule here), at King’s Park Sports Ground, Kowloon.

Sunday’s festival of rugby league promises something for everyone with the Redsip HKTag Challenge, Redsip HKRL Nines, alongside this inaugural Wanchai Stadium Women’s Nines Battle of Origin, and finishing with an after party hosted by Wanchai Stadium.

Meet the teams

Video: meet the women battling for glory at the Wanchai Stadium Women’s Nines
 
2018 Hong Kong jersey.
http://www,hongkongrugbyleague.com

I'm delighted to announce that HKRL and Redsip have entered into a partnership. Redsip have secured naming rights to the 4th edition of the HKRL 9s and HKTag Challenge which takes place this Sunday at King's Park and sees a Tonga development team visit these shores for the first time and the return of fans favourites the Diamond Chiefs from Papua New Guinea. The partnership also sees them sponsor the Hong Kong national team, Hong Kong play Japan in Tokyo on Saturday 16 June. Thank you Qing "Ching" Li for making this happen.

Redsip is a social network bringing wine appreciation to everyone. It takes leading AI and AR technologies to make wine appreciation easy and fun. Friends have meaningful interactions around wines on the Redsip app, bringing friends closer together.

A Silicon Valley based company sponsoring us shows the increasing appeal of rugby league outside of the heartlands. Thank you to Andy WK Lau for making the introduction and continuing his faith and enthuisiasim for tag and rugby league.

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Mexican titan said:
How did the 9's go Brad.
Click to expand...

It was brilliant. It was a scorcher but fortunately we kicked off at 4:30pm and got some of the shade from the buildings. I feel more for the HKtag players who trooped on during the day.

I got to judge the games on field two and pick the man of the match awards. Took it really seriously. I think I picked the right players.

We had a mix of local teams including a local team called Pacific Toa made up of many islanders. We also had Diamond Chiefs from PNG return to defend their title. You can imagine how expensive it would be for them. But they have been holding sausage sizzles and dances for a year to raise money. I was pleased to see many even bring over their family and young children.

Play rugby league, see the world.

We also had a Tonga residents team. And gee they were amazing. I think many sides would have been a little worried. But every team gave it their best. Tonga didn't concede until the final.

The Chiefs got knocked out in the last few seconds of their semi final against Pacific Toa. Being denied a try. VIDEO OF GAME

So the final was Pacific Toa vs Tonga. In the pool stage, Tonga had beaten them 18-0.

The match started with their war dances. And it was spine tingling. VIDEO HERE

The scores were level at half time, 6-all. Pacific Toa really played smart and lifted their game. One of the beauties of having a tournament and second chances.

It looked like Pacific Toa scored off a cross field bomb with seconds to spare, but the ref didn't allow it. Tonga immediately counter attacked and scored. Ending the game. A tremendous game and comp.

The spirit it was played in was great and both teams joined together after the game.

LIVE STREAM - FINAL
 
Great to hear. I watched the war dances on Facebook as I get the HKRL posts but didn't see the game so I'll watch that via your link, thanks. The games were played not far from where we stayed a few weeks back. Great to see the progress you are making and especially with the sponsorship.
I notice the fields at Kings are artificial turf. How does what you have there go in regard to burns etc. I know great improvements have been made since the early days but would be interested to hear how your guys rated it. I assume the amount of traffic on grounds in HK would be massive and grass is not an option. I wandered through Victoria Park and the grass there was pretty patchy due to crowd traffic.
 
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HKRL now has a podcast, this is episode 3.*

Here you will here about the recent 9s and Tag comp. The first round of the domestic super league.

Here from two ladies who do most of the administration of HKTag and some interesting stories about how they got into the sport.*

Our own Origin battle looming, HK Island vs Kowloon and New Territories. Which will be played in a 9s format but will feature tag in mens and womens and contact RL in mens and womens.

Also hear from*Mike Tsang, HK born but grew up in New Zealand, hear about how the sport has helped him and how it cuts through racism.

https://www.facebook.com/hkrugbyleague/posts/1079541728853060
 
Looking forward to watching this on the livestream.

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Calm before the HK Thunder storm.

Japan (UTC +9) Sat, 16 Jun 2018 – 13:30

United Kingdom (UTC +1) Sat, 16 Jun 2018 – 05:30

Hong Kong (UTC +8) Sat, 16 Jun 2018 – 12:30

Australia (UTC +10) Sat, 16 Jun 2018 – 14:30

NY, USA (UTC -4) Sat, 16 Jun 2018 – 00:30
 
Hong Kong won their first ever International Test!

32-20. It was a tense game. And the Japanese were very determined and dangerous.

Really proud of the team and the East Asia Cup will certainly develop into a successful and well regarded competition.
 
We are planning on returning to the field after some severe COVID drama and pretty upsetting political situations.

But Rugby League has been there for people in tough times for generations and it has a role to play here too.

It'll be 13 a side and be taking in the hellish conditions of August. More details as they come to hand.
 
Warrington Wolves’ ambitious plans to engage with town’s Hong Kong community
www.loverugbyleague.com

Warrington Wolves' ambitious plans to engage with town's Hong Kong community

Warrington Wolves are strengthening their connection with the town's growing Hong Kong community, which could have ever-lasting benefits for both parties.
www.loverugbyleague.com www.loverugbyleague.com

Warrington Wolves are strengthening their connection with the town’s growing Hong Kong community, which could have ever-lasting benefits for both parties.

There are believed to be around 6,000 residents from Hong Kong who have made Warrington their home as part of a resettlement scheme, with the Wolves helping spread the rugby league gospel to the borough’s growing community.

Warrington recently welcomed around 200 Hong Kongers to the Halliwell Jones Stadium as they hosted Catalans Dragons in Super League as part of their ‘Kid 4 a Quid’ ticketing scheme, with the Super League club running social media adverts in Cantonese prior to the game.

“What we’ve done for a couple of events now is that we’ve been running ads in Cantonese,” Warrington Wolves marketing manager Liam Brown told Love Rugby League.

“We did it for our fireworks event last year which was our introduction and we saw crazy numbers – more than 10 per cent click through rates on the adverts which, in terms of Facebook ads, you never see that usually. It’s more in the region of one or two per cent that are clicking through so we’re absolutely buzzing with it.

“I knew it was a high number so we showed it to a lady called Tayler at IMG who handles all the paid media stuff and she was like ‘that is incredible, I’ve never seen a 13 or 14 per cent click through rate before’ so we thought maybe there is a little bit of a market there for us.

“We tried it with our ‘Kid 4 a Quid’ game with the low barrier entry because of the cost. It’s a little bit difficult to track because you are relying on looking at names but we estimate around 200 Hong Kongers took it up. We ran the ads in Cantonese so a lot of people came through on that and there’s an appetite there now for rugby league.”

Hong Kong has little heritage in rugby league but that’s something the Wolves want to change: they have come up with a five-year strategy to grow their fanbase via their links with the town’s Hong Kong community.

“Warrington Wolves, as an organisation, is huge in the town and we see ourselves as the flag carriers for the town,” Brown added.

“We believe the more we can get Hong Kongers involved in coming and watching the club, the better the integration is going to be: both for them and us. It’s obviously great for us introducing new people to the sport.”

The Wire have a long-term vision of having 500 people of their average attendances at the Halliwell Jones Stadium to be from the town’s Hong Kong community by 2030.

The strategy plan consists of data, objectives, events, information, junior rugby, education and research:

  1. Objectives – building a database for Hong Kongers
  2. Events – targeting games such as Wigan and St Helens of what a big game looks and feels like, two ‘Kid 4 a Quid’ games which are low barrier entries, hosting large and no-purchase engagement events
  3. Research – finding out more about the community, where they hang out and where the touch points are going to be for the community
  4. Junior rugby – engagement sessions aimed at getting young players into community clubs
  5. Informing – building Cantonese information and having an education strategy
Education of rugby league and the language barrier will be the biggest hurdles for the Wire to overcome in terms of getting the Hong Konger fans onboard for the long run. Some might not know what rugby league is – but the Wire are hoping to change that, slowly but surely.

“We’ve had a look at it and education is going to be the biggest thing and how we get around that,” Brown said.

“We’re coming up with a strategy now and it’s getting kids playing, getting kids interested, hosting free taster sessions so the kids can come and play, and then we can point them in the right direction of clubs once we’ve done a little bit of education on that.

“It was a little while ago that we held an open day for Hong Kongers.. We’re going to try and do that more regularly, invite them down to team run, get them to meet the players and let them see things close up.

“Something we are looking at is the language being a barrier. We’re looking to build a database of Hong Kongers that we can communicate with in Cantonese like an email list which may be a bit different from our standard email list. When you read our email list it is assumed that our readers know about the coaches and players and so on, but we are going to make it simpler for Hong Kongers and explain why it’s happened, who the teams we’ve played are and maybe do that monthly. We are going to have Hong Konger pages on our website explaining the basic rules of the game, how you get to the stadium and simple things like the Super League competition and how it works.”

Warrington’s planning strategy is nearly complete and it will soon be up and running. It is a bold ambition from the Wire to have 500 regularly attending Hong Konger fans by 2030, but they are doing all that they can to engage with the town’s growing community.

“It’s a big ask and a massive stretch target but I assume that number is only going to grow over the years as long as the resettlement scheme is in place,” Brown added.

“So how do we make that into steps? So by the end of the season, can we say our final few games are averaging at least 50 Hong Kongers at the game? And then by the final few games of next season, can we average 100 at a game? The year after that, can it be 250? When you say 500 it sounds ridiculous, but if you say 50 by the end of the season and 100 by next season and so on, then it sounds more realistic in terms of gradual growth.

“A lot of people would agree that you don’t have to be from a rugby league area to get the sport in your blood. Once you get it in your blood you have those exciting moments and you are tied to it emotionally, and it’s in your blood forever and it never leaves.”
 
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