Well its been a very busy few days in Hong Kong all round, hasn’t it…?
The weekend started in fine fashion with the Sevens Long Lunch marking the run-up to next March’s Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens – a packed house were entertained by rugby legends Andy Nicol, Stephen Moore, Steve Borthwick, and our very own Dave Lewis who rivalled the excellent comedian Dominic Holland for audience amusement.

Stephen Moore then very kindly joined us the following day at King’s Park for the kick-off of the domestic league season with a Premiership Super Saturday – some exciting rugby, find out who took the early season honours here
We also received the exceptional news on Saturday that the Hong Kong U20 men’s teams had knocked over Korea to win the Asian Junior Championship in Sri Lanka and book a berth in next year’s IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy in Portugal – congratulations to all the players and staff, read how they did it here

Today our Men’s and Women’s Sevens teams have commenced their quest for Asian Games medals in Incheon – there doesn’t appear to be any live streaming or TV coverage sadly, but you can follow live scoring from our man in Korea on the Union Facebook site https://www.facebook.com/hkrugby and Twitter as well. Our men beat Pakistan 72-0 earlier on, and these are the remaining times today and tomorrow (HK time);
Womens Tournament: 14:46 - Hong Kong vs Malaysia
Mens Tournament: 15:52 - Hong Kong vs Philippines
Womens Tournament: 18:26 - Hong Kong vs Thailand

Timings for final group games on Wednesday are:
Mens Tournament: 12:12 - Hong Kong vs China
Womens Tournament: 14:24 - Hong Kong vs Kazakhstan
Full schedule in Korean time here: http://www.incheon2014ag.org/Sports/Schedule/BySport?RSC=RU0000000&Date=20140930&lang=en#/Sports/Schedule/BySport?RSC=RU0000000&Date=20140930&lang=en

This Saturday we’re due to have the first full league schedule, with almost all 81 teams in action – check out who is playing where and when here

Looking further ahead, there will be a reunion of players who played for the Hong Kong during the 1970s-80s in London on 8 November 2014 to coincide with the England New Zealand Autumn International match – if you’d like to go along please contact Steve Williams theoldgoat@ntlworld.com

With summer now nearly over, Christmas must be just around the corner, so while you’re digging out your fairy lights please remind your sons and daughters to enrole for this year’s Prudential New Year’s Day Youth Tournament http://www.hkrugby.com/eng/news/4292.php !
For overseas students please contact;
U16 Boys – David Peters on dpeters@ngpfashion.com
U18 Boys – Hau Chow on hau1638@yahoo.com.hk
Girls – Andy Yuen on andy.yuen@hkrugby.com

Touch
Applications for the Winter Touch League are now open – competition will be every Friday evening 7th November 2014 through to February 2015, 7.30-9.00pm at Happy Valley.
Please be note entries are on first-come-first served basis, so don’t delay and apply today – application forms at http://www.hkrugby.com/eng/senior/touch/touch_winter_league.php

Charities
Operation Breakthrough’s annual charity boxing dinner is on Friday 17th October at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal – “Cruising for a Bruising” will be a memorable evening, with special guest Marvelous Marvin Hagler! For details and bookings contact Barry on bjay@netvigator.com

This year’s Ben Kende Foundation Ball has been postponed.

Rugby Calendar
4th October – all other divisions commence
11th October – 1st Hong Kong Beach Sports Festival (Repulse Bay)

Rugby on TV
Follow the English Premiership and Guinness Pro 12 on Setanta, and French Top 14 on Eurosports
It’s the last round of The Rugby Championship on Setanta this week…
Saturday 4th October
10.50pm All Blacks v Springboks
Sunday 5th October
6.30am Pumas v Wallabies

Rugby on the Radio
Listen to the velvet tones of Grant Beuzeval as he talks to the movers and shakers of Hong Kong rugby, and keeps you updated with all you need to know about Rugby in the 852… http://www.hkrugby.com/eng/news/3710.php
On the show this week, Bloomberg HK Scottish CEO Dave Whiteford and his Head Coach Craig Hammond, plus a first time visit from Chris Davies, the Head Coach for the Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers

Rugby in SCMP
If you haven’t yet visited the fantastic SCMP-HKRFU website, delay no more! All the top local and international rugby stories plus some superbly written blogs, all on mobile-friendly platform…what more could you ask for? http://www.scmp.com/sport/rugby