Crouch, touch ... engage | Uniformed ‘brothers’ play key role in growth of the game

Every year our domestic rugby league takes a break over the festive period to allow for holidays and guilt-free consumption of mince pies and Quality Street, but not all competitive activity ceases as Hong Kong's Disciplined Services host their annual fixture against the People’s Liberation Army for the TK Lai Cup.

For those involved, this is one of the highlights of the rugby calendar and a reminder of the important role the police and military played in the development of Hong Kong rugby.

In September the Police Rugby Club organised a dinner to celebrate what was thought to be their 60th anniversary, although thanks to a deluge of historical information from former members around the globe it transpired it was more probably the 75th anniversary!

Matches were certainly played in 1938, if not before, and although initially they were some way behind both the British military sides and the Hong Kong Football Club, by the 1970s the Police were no longer strangers to the odd bit of silverware. By the mid-1980s they were arguably the strongest side in the First Division and famously won the Singapore Cricket Club Sevens in 1989.

The 1997 handover and the end to expatriate recruitment critically reduced the player pool that Police rugby could draw from, and many felt that the club would quietly fade from the scene.

Thankfully, the concept of growing the game amongst the local officers had already been firmly planted some years before through the vision and determination of individuals like Gus Cunningham, and this allowed the club to reinvent itself to the point where there are now just a handful of ageing gweilos left running out in the three men’s teams and the Sirens women’s team each week.