Women’s rugby: Hong Kong set for first matches in three years – with their first Chinese head coach
- Kazakhstan to visit the city for matches on December 10 and 17, which will be Hong Kong’s first action since the emergence of Covid-19
- Royce Chan will make history as the first ethnic Chinese head coach of a Hong Kong representative 15
Hong Kong’s women’s team are to play their first international matches since before the pandemic when they face Kazakhstan on consecutive weekends this month – and they will do so with the city’s first ethnic Chinese rugby head coach.
Their return to the field will be overseen for the first time by local stalwart Royce Chan Leong-sze, the first ever ethnic Chinese to take charge of a Hong Kong representative 15.
Chan, who previously captained the Hong Kong 15-a-side and sevens teams, has been involved in the coaching set-up for the 15s since 2018.
“As a coach I have a mission and a dream that goes past wins and losses,” she said of her rise to the top job. “I want to show as a role model how women can deal with different situations and conditions and positively contribute to how women are perceived in the traditionally male-dominated sports industry.
“My mission is not only for rugby but for women who are trying to achieve as leaders in the sports community and show that we can be confident and speak up for ourselves.
“My ambition is to lead Hong Kong back to a Rugby World Cup. If I could represent Hong Kong as a player at a World Cup and as a coach at a World Cup in the future, that would be incredible.”
The series with Kazakhstan comes with Hong Kong in a rebuilding phase, and will help Chan to gauge their progress.
“For the entire women’s rugby community, this is big,” she said. “Fifteens has been on and off quite a bit in the past few years due to Covid, so to have international matches at home means a lot for the bigger picture.
“This is a new generation of players and I look forward to some new caps and having a really fruitful result. We have lost a few players overseas during Covid, but we managed to sustain a core group and have also managed to identify some new players, and the clubs have been very helpful in this.”
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A number of sevens players are expected to join the camp in the coming days following the Asia Rugby Sevens Series, in which Hong Kong finished fourth overall.
After bringing in more than 40 players for a trial, excluding the sevens players, the group is being whittled down to a final squad for the two matches. The players have trained with the Hong Kong men’s under-19 team, who are preparing for the Asia Rugby Under-19 Championship this month in Malaysia.
A camp this weekend is the final hurdle for players before Chan picks a 30-strong squad for the tests on December 10, at 3pm at Siu Sai Wan Stadium, and December 17, at 6.15pm at Hong Kong Football Club.
