International rugby round-up

In the Asian 5 nations over the weekend Japan beat Sri Lanka 132-10 in Nagoya Japan. Clearly the gap is massive in 15's between Japan and the rest of Asia. South Korea and HK can keep with in 40 points of Japan, but the rest it's a blow out. The AB's would be a 200 points better side than Sri Lanka.

interesting to see that the NZRU, US Rugby Union and Chicago Sports Commission have scheduled a press conference for next Tuesday (local time) in Chicago. This can only mean confirmation of the US-NZ test!

@ Tigranes I'm not suggesting that the average Chinaman DOES know or care about rugby. And I agree that Uruguay (or frankly any other country you'd like to mention) would beat the Chinese. But that's not the point. Why do you think Man U and Chelsea and the big EPL clubs are spending more and more time in Asia, specifically China? Because that's where the long-term cash is. Build interest, build a following, make money and invest that back in expanding and bettering the game. Clearly football has a headstart but you have to start somewhere. I guess what I'm saying is, the IRB needs to have an eye on the long game, as well as the short game... though if it's done well, every $1 spent on the long game will provide a dividend of $10, rather than a questionable return on investing in tin-pot countries...

Those of us who play and coach there are pretty proud of them. I'll definitely be on the sidelines cheering as the lads take on Korea on Saturday. (The fact about 8 of the side are from my club helps!). I am loving the current improvement. I was away from HK for three and a half years and the standard has noticeably leapt in that small timeframe. Most exciting is the massive increase in juniors which has been building over the last 20 or so years and bodes really well for the future of the game. There is no doubt football is the game that largely engages the locals but rugby is growing and at a very good pace.

Hong Kong Squad for Sri Lanka: 1. Leon WEI, Hon Sum, 2. Thomas BOLLAND, 3. James COOPER, 4. Jack DELAFORCE, 5. Paul DWYER, 6. Nicholas HEWSON (Captain), 7. Matt LAMMING, 8. Pale TAUTI, 9. Jamie HOOD, 10. Chris MCADAM, 11. Rowan VARTY, 12. Jake PHELPS, 13. Lloyd JONES, 14. Tom MCQUEEN, 15. Tom MCCOLL, 16. Alex NG, Wai Shing, 17. Steve NOLAN, 18. Alex HARRIS, 19. Bill BRANT, 20. Alex BADDELEY, 21. Peter MCKEE, 22. Alex MCQUEEN, 23. Nick WHEATLEY.

@ In Brief : ma8 i know what im talking of, coz im from SL. i'v seen the match video and its not pretty :(

Gee Daveski HK must be very proud of their Rugby team. A bit like Australians once were.

Kenya and Zimbabwe are both better chances of knocking off Namibia than Madagascar in the African qualifying tournament coming up. In Division 1 of last year's Africa Cup (played in Madagascar) Zimbabwe defeated Madagascar 38-18. Kenya then defeated Zimbabwe 29-17 in the final. Namibia lost to Madagascar a couple of years ago but with a much weakened team. I'm pretty sure they still have the most professional players of the 4. And they'll play in the world cup qualifiers. It would be fantastic if the IRB organised a decent stream for the matches. It would really showcase the development of the international game with 40,000 people in the crowd in Antananarivo. For the next world cup I wouldn't be surprised if Algeria qualified as Africa 1. There's a fair few Algerian qualified players running around the top French leagues. They are only a recently formed union however...not yet full IRB members so couldn't attempt to qualify for 2015.

Singapore, HK are the two I have the most recent and detailed experience of and they are both growing. Singapore is much much smaller but really pleasingly is seeing schools that have been playing the game go on to produce Old Boys clubs that their recent graduates (early 20s) are now competing in men's competitions against the established clubs. While I was there my club founded a junior Academy and were putting about 150 kids through training and games each weekend. In HK there is an absolutely massive focus on junior rugby. My club HKCC is tied in with the Sandy Bay juniors and have about 1500 kids training and playing each weekend from about under 6s through to 18s before they start feeding the senior club. One of the big things with the top players in our clubs is that they get a bit of money, help getting a job etc and they in turn have to help supply coaching to these juniors. HKFC would have an even bigger junior section than we do, I see really great things happening in HK in the coming years and see the connection between senior and junior clubs as something that we could do a lot better in Oz.

Sounds good to me , the cost would be very minimal.

Plenty, there are a growing number of clubs that are pretty much completely local such as Tin Shui Wah, the DEA team that knocked my guys over in the National League 3 division were exclusively local and that was against my side who who only had three ethnically local guys in the side. The national team is dominated by people who aren't ethnically Asian but there are plenty playing the game. If I had to guess in my club which fields five men's and a women's team the women's side is probably about 2/3rds vs expats. The men's squad is a more heavily skewed the other way with about 4/5ths expat. But we are a pretty gwai lo club. It is important to note that there are a lot of 'expat' kids born and raised in HK playing rugby here.

Think there were only two ethnic Chinese in the 23 that day. They have a huge expat population with deep seated roots, many who have been born there as well as those who have qualified under the three year visa rule. They are really a developing side.

Kenyan are a good presence on the 7s circuit but won't get near the RWC in 2015. The best chance for a new team might be Madagascar if they can get over Namibia ( whom have bought neither character nor skill to the last few world cups ). If the irb provides a video link of that game as they did the recent USA Uruguay match it would be a cracker. In Brief - you're a goose and obviously have zero knowledge of HK Rugby. Their heftiest player currently is their loose head prop - a local Cantonese. I think try have at least three Cantonese in the current 15s squad. No "fat Poms" in that team but a mix of nationalities but if they choose to call Hong Kong home then what's your problem. Or should the Wallabies only pick third generation Anglos?

Pclifto The average chinaman doesn't know what rugby is or care...he likes Manchester United and playing mah Jong. The numbers are irrelevant, just because there are over a billion Chinese, doesn't mean the IRB should be wasting its scare resources on trying to get them to play a sport they couldn't care less about. At least Malagasy, moldovans and Georgians have got some interest in rugby. Uruguay has less than 3000 players, they would absolutely school the Chinese in rugby (or soccer as well for that matter) and they have less than 3m in total population.

And, by the way, the success of HK rugby could and should be parlayed into driving interest in mainland China...

We should "forget about growing the game in China" because it's unknown... but concentrate on Madagascar and Moldova because it's better known? Mmm not sure I like the logic. I think that actually, population DOES matter when you think long term. We should be thinking big - China and Russia good places to start. If you can get even a toehold in these big markets, a small % of a massive population is still a big number. We should be aiming to get China and Russia to the point where USA and Canada are right now - regular RWC participants.

Agreed - would be nice to see a different team all the same though.

It would, but to get there they'd have to beat Russia then a team like Kenya and finally (most likely) Uruguay. 2019 would be a more realistic chance for Germany if they continue to develop over the next 4 years. Finding some more pro players with German Grandparents (or getting existing German players into professional squads) would help. Teams that used to be made up of amateurs - like USA, Canada, Georgia, Romania etc are now almost entirely made up of full time pros. Any aspiring world cup entrant (at least from Europe) has to get to that point to have a realistic chance from now on.

Gatesy Soccer is the main game in China, but despite massive funding and millions of players, they are still a crap team. Rugby is unknown to china, we should forget about growing the sport there...the irb should focus on places like Georgia, Moldova, Madagascar and Romania where they are least care about the game and are half decent

I will be looking out for the Germany/Holland RWC qualifier this weekend, the winner will move forward to the repacharge. Wouldn't it be great for rugby to see a new team like Germany in the RWC 2015.