Saved by the game
Scholarship set at-risk Sha Tin boy on path to learn sport in NZ and eventually play for Hong Kong
As Hong Kong head coach Dai Rees tells it, "There is no off season in Hong Kong, rugby is a 365-day-a-year commitment."
The HKRFU is best known for its Sevens showcase, but beyond this is money put aside to build new pitches, the ongoing task of getting local children moving, Operation Breakthrough, an initiative for at-risk children and the scholarship programmes that set many on a very different path.
"'The HKRFU has changed my life," says Andy Yuen. "I work for them as national youth development officer, which means I coach new national players and girl's sides. I've been coaching the women's sevens team and the youth Asian team of girls and boys 16 to 17."
They say each journey begins with a single step, but in Yuen's case, it started with a flight to Auckland, and then a long drive. "When I was 16, via the union's Educational Trust, I was given a scholarship to attend Matamata College, near Hamilton in New Zealand. Rugby put me on the straight and narrow and gave me an outlet for my excessive energy. When I was nine, my mother recognised I had energy to burn and she joined me up for rugby for the Sha Tin Sha Pei team. "Moving to New Zealand was an absolute culture shock for the first six months. It is so different from Hong Kong and the life I'd experienced here. I did a home-stay and I am still in touch with my host family who helped me get over the homesickness. They taught me a lot. One thing was cooking. They said, 'OK Andy, if you take on some of the cooking we will keep your room clean for you'. I still don't cook Chinese food; I cook the western food I learnt in New Zealand."
One other thing that became second nature was the haka. "Like most New Zealand rugby-based schools, we had a haka. It's an incredibly powerful war cry and it gets in your soul," he said.
From life skills to rugby skills and beyond, on reflection Yuen considers this was the time that shaped him.
"Playing for the Hong Kong Sevens team was a dream come true. From the first day I played rugby when I was nine, I decided I wanted to play at the Hong Kong Sevens.