Interviews December 2021∣Youth Hong Kong
Tackling rugby
and winning against the odds l Rugby, like most team sports, was brought to Hong Kong by the British and originally local players won through teamwork, strategy and speed, says Gai Wu Vice-Chair, Feimei Leung who is also a player and youth manager.
l 本地女子欖球組織「雞糊欖球會」副主 席兼欖球員梁巧盈表示，欖球由英國人 傳入，本地球員以往憑藉團隊精神、策 略及速度取勝。
l Chairman, Andy Pong, says his club’s founding goal was to bring local Chinese and Eurasian people into the formerly exclusively expat game.
l 球會主席龐富升表明，球會成立的目的 是讓更多本地華人參與這項由外籍人士 人主導的運動。
l They both say that parental support in physical education is very important, especially in Hong Kong where academic results usually come before other development paths for a child.
l 兩位均表示，父母的支持，對青年投入 運動發展非常重要，尤其不少父母重視 子女的學業成績先於其他範疇的發展。
Founded in 1987 by a small group of Eurasian and local Chinese including former Chairman, John Greene, Gai Wu’s goal has always been to promote rugby to local Hong Kong Chinese people. "Back then, we as Chinese players would achieve victory against the bigger expat teams by using our teamwork, strategy and speed,” says Vice-Chairlady Fei-mei.
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In sport, people discover qualities such as respect for others and teamwork that they cannot learn from books.
Against the odds, Gai Wu became the first all-Asian rugby club to get membership of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union which now fully supports it as a premiership club. Getting recognition was important, but what mattered most, says current Chairman, Andy Pong, was playing, not just competing. “Our culture focuses on playing the game as a team, supporting each other as a family.”
learned from experience, having been sent away to a tough Scottish boarding school as a rebellious teenager. Did the overseas schooling work out well? “It let me discover my passion,” he says, “playing hockey and rugby.”
“Playing definitely comes first,” Andy continues, as well as finding out what you are good at. “In sport, people discover qualities such as respect for others and teamwork that they cannot learn from books.” Andy
While recognizing that many parents put academic results first, he emphasizes that sport provides young people with a very important outlet for energy but is also a way to vent frustration. “Like I did, they can find release through sport,”
