Where to for Twiggy Rugby?
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p.Tah
John Thornett (49)
I’m pretty sure it was just before the British first occupied HK
WorkingClassRugger
David Codey (61)
Rebels3
Jim Lenehan (48)
I have a few friends that have played for or still play for HK. I can assure you apart from Japan they are the most likely Asian country to maintain a professional side. The already have a full time professional program that employs some of its best players, the local comp gets fairly decent support at community level and the competition is semi-professional in areas. The issue for them is the quality of players and the fact they are fairly isolated from a rugby viewpoint. Junior level needs some work as well. They’d get some commercial support but they would have to weigh up if they want to participate in a competition that will have massive traveling costs with limited revenue streams (TV) and if that drain on finances is worth the hassle. From what I’ve heard they would welcome the opportunity to explore the idea but the preferred option only recently was entry in some capacity to the Japanese league. But that’s another complicated matter.
WorkingClassRugger
David Codey (61)
I have been told that the HKRFU are investing heavily in youth Rugby with the goal to have practically every school in the city state participating in one form or the other in the next 5 years.
Boof1050
Bill Watson (15)
Hong Kong is 8hr direct flight to Perth and on the same time zone as Perth. Fiji on the other hand is a whole different ballgame. 2 flights and different times does make it lot less likely. Besides the fact that most of the pacific unions have a bit corruption going on I doubt that Twiggy would be interested in investing in shenanigans. Or we just stick with the status quo and stop the whining. Or are you guys maybe afraid that some of the top players from the remaining Australian teams may end up with us?
Rugbynutter39
Michael Lynagh (62)
wamberal
Phil Kearns (64)
From 1976 until just before the end of colonial rule. Not continously, I also spent three years in Bangkok during that time, and a couple of years back in Sydney, doing a consulting job for the Reserve Bank.
WorkingClassRugger
David Codey (61)
Do you mean the end of its Dependent Territory status which was 1997?
Either way that was 20 years ago. A lot can change in 20 years.
wamberal
Phil Kearns (64)
Spending so long embedded in local organisations, and working and socialising with local people, does give one a pretty good insight into the culture and habits of a place.
In the whole time that I lived in Asia, not once did a local show the slightest interest in rugby that I saw or heard,not ever. And I knew a pretty good cross section of people, and spent a lot of time working on a daily basis with locals. As a generalisation, the people I worked with showed no interest in professional sport at all. And these were well off, well educated, and middle class
There was no rugby on FTA, in fact for many years the only way I could get any "live" international rugby was on Radio New Zealand via shortwave. There was lots of AFL on Radio Australia. When I complained about this, they said that if they ignored the footy, they were swamped with complaints from expat Australians.
There was very little organised professional sport of any kind, and I doubt that any of these factors have changed very much.
Yes, if you have cable, you can access some international rugby. There is always the odd pub which shows big games, and the audience is all expats, of course.
I am happy to be proven wrong.
In the whole time that I lived in Asia, not once did a local show the slightest interest in rugby that I saw or heard,not ever. And I knew a pretty good cross section of people, and spent a lot of time working on a daily basis with locals. As a generalisation, the people I worked with showed no interest in professional sport at all. And these were well off, well educated, and middle class
There was no rugby on FTA, in fact for many years the only way I could get any "live" international rugby was on Radio New Zealand via shortwave. There was lots of AFL on Radio Australia. When I complained about this, they said that if they ignored the footy, they were swamped with complaints from expat Australians.
There was very little organised professional sport of any kind, and I doubt that any of these factors have changed very much.
Yes, if you have cable, you can access some international rugby. There is always the odd pub which shows big games, and the audience is all expats, of course.
I am happy to be proven wrong.
Can you please stop this.
It's not a binary argument. Those that point out flaws in the IPRC model aren't advocating for the status quo - nobody is.
It's not an us vs them thing either. We all want WA rugby to succeed, and we are all just arguing about the best way to reach that outcome. I agree with Wamberal that it seems really unlikely that HK will be able to support a top-flight side without importing 30 players from elsewhere.
I'm just getting a bit sick of certain posters trying to turn this search for a positive outcome into a bitter fight between 'haters' and 'believers'.
.
WorkingClassRugger
David Codey (61)
You're talking about 20+ years ago. A lot can and does change in that time. You're operating on outdated data and while you should always look to learn from the past it's never smart to live in it.
WorkingClassRugger
David Codey (61)
Hong Kong already has a professional set up in place for both 7s and 15s across men's and women's. So they have the necessary base in place. They also are quite well funded apparently. It's also backed by a semi-professional local league which is coming on quickly. They're actually one of the more likely of the options.
Outside of that. Yeah, it's for the most part not an us vs them argument.
brokendown
Vay Wilson (31)
I usually nip up to Thailand at least twice a year,usually to play golf,but my last trip to Bangkok was to watch my son play rugby at the Bangkok 10's--good mixture of expat and local players from all over the shop;however it was good to see,in the schoolboys division,the number of thai kids playing.
Every second pub in bangkok,Pattaya,hua Hin ,has rugby on the big screen,and yes,mainly watched by ex pats
wamberal
Phil Kearns (64)
If you go looking for rugby, you can certainly find it.
There is a bit of local rugby in Thailand, the armed forces have teams, so do a couple of the prestigious schools.
As a generalisation, Thais are a bit more interested in sport than the Chinese that I knew in Hong Kong days.
My rugby club, Eastwood, is plumb in the middle of a part of Sydney which is very popular with migrants from "Asian" countries. As is Gordon, and Northern Suburbs, come to think of it.
Eastwood is moving away from its present base, and the idea is to move a fair way to the north west, where there is a population which is interested in rugby.
Look for Asian faces at Eastwood, Gordon, or Norths games, and you will not see many.
There is a trend in high schools, away from organised sport, certainly away from the traditional organised sports. James Ruse Agricultural High School, the top school in NSW academically, plays very little competitive sport.
People who want their kids to get into academically selective schools, especially those of a non-Anglo background, are very single-minded, the kids get lots of extra coaching, and sport is just not an issue for them.
Bit of a ramble here, but it does seem to me that in general Asians are not a natural audience, either as spectators, or as participants in our game.
There is a bit of local rugby in Thailand, the armed forces have teams, so do a couple of the prestigious schools.
As a generalisation, Thais are a bit more interested in sport than the Chinese that I knew in Hong Kong days.
My rugby club, Eastwood, is plumb in the middle of a part of Sydney which is very popular with migrants from "Asian" countries. As is Gordon, and Northern Suburbs, come to think of it.
Eastwood is moving away from its present base, and the idea is to move a fair way to the north west, where there is a population which is interested in rugby.
Look for Asian faces at Eastwood, Gordon, or Norths games, and you will not see many.
There is a trend in high schools, away from organised sport, certainly away from the traditional organised sports. James Ruse Agricultural High School, the top school in NSW academically, plays very little competitive sport.
People who want their kids to get into academically selective schools, especially those of a non-Anglo background, are very single-minded, the kids get lots of extra coaching, and sport is just not an issue for them.
Bit of a ramble here, but it does seem to me that in general Asians are not a natural audience, either as spectators, or as participants in our game.
Bandar
Bob Loudon (25)
The strange thing is that the biggest TV audience in a country at the last world cup was in Japan...
Maybe if they have a good team to follow they will be interested and more interest means more players which will in turn generate more interest....
WorkingClassRugger
David Codey (61)
wamberal
Phil Kearns (64)
Japan does have a bit more of a rugby tradition than most Asian countries. I can still remember going to some full Test matches against Japan at the old SCG, in 1975. I recall Ian Robertson, the Eastwood winger, on his debut scored a try with his first touch of the ball.
Plus of course the corporate dollar does help.
Plus of course the corporate dollar does help.
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