Breakthrough Annual Rugby Match
Yesterday was our annual Breakthrough v the Old Boys game and the awards dinner. For once the weather was good to us and after the torrential rain on Saturday we had a very pleasant afternoon for rugby.
The old boys won the rugby with a strong performance and clearly weren’t going to lose following their loss last year. The score was about 20 odd to 7 and a picture of the two teams is below. It was great to see so many old faces and we had all three boys who played for HK U20s playing, along with many of our policemen and lots of others besides. It is great to see that many of our boys are still playing rugby and involved at weekends with a number of clubs around HK.
Afterwards it was off to the club for a Chinese dinner. Firstly they had to suffer a speech from me, following which I awarded the “Tarrant Trophy” to the Old Boys. As the evening progressed we re-awarded our trophies to the U16 Grand Championship winners and the U19 2nd XV who won the Division 2 Grand Championship. It was then onto the main awards and the winners were:
· Best Girl – Chan Sat Hei
· Most Improved U16 player – Yiu Chang Tak
· U16 Best Player - Chan Yuk Wang
· Most Improved U19 player - Chau Siu Fung
· U19 Best Player - Chan Wang Tat
· Best Tourist – Ma Ho Hin
Finally we had the Blair Abbiss Memorial Cup awarded to our best/most committed player. Unfortunately for the first time since the Cup was awarded in 2005, neither John or Justin Abbiss could make it, John having retired to the UK and Justin having moved to NZ. However they were ably represented by one of Blair’s good friends, Will Budden and he awarded the trophy to Leung Ka Kiu. Ka Kiu is a very deserving winner and this is the second time he has won, having previously received it two years ago. Below are pictures of Will and Ma Ho Hin and Will and Ka Kiu , along with another of all our trophy winners.
It was a great evening and thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended.
In other news the girls have entered a team in the Women’s Open Touch Summer League, which is played on Saturday afternoons throughout June at Kings Park, so if you are over that way do cheer them on.
Finally adding to my good news about five of the lads and one of our coaches going to the UK in the summer, we have been offered two heavily subsidised places by Football Club to join them on their weeks training camp at the NZ International Rugby Academy at Palmerston North in NZ. Murray Mexted, the famous All Black is apparently one of the main people behind the Academy. The trip is in October and we will be looking to find two suitable lads to send. These are great opportunities for the boys, who are obviously very excited about it.
We are now of course entering the summer months and whilst we will continue to train every Wednesday and hold our summer course for the new boys and girls in July and August on a Friday, things will be relatively quiet. Mind you, that said, our next event is on 25 June 2016. Gunny our head coach also coaches the HK deaf team and thanks to some generous sponsorship from Standard Chartered, who are also our main sponsors, the Cambodian deaf team are visiting HK and will play them at touch. We have been invited to enter a team as well to make it a triangular tournament. I will let you have more details nearer the time, but it promises to be an interesting afternoon, so make a note.