The invitation was too tempting to resist: spend a night having facials and massages with some teammates from the Hong Kong Football Club. The chance to see how some of the hard men of Third Division rugby reacted to being covered in oils and pampered at a spa - away from the liniment and testosterone of Happy Valley changing rooms, gravel-pitches of Kowloon and the smoke-filled Sportsman's Bar - was one that could not be passed up.
So it was on a Monday night that I met with three team mates in the 'zen room' of the new Elemis Day Spa in Lan Kwai Fong, Central. As they sipped on the complimentary wine and attacked the cheeseboard dressed in fluffy white robes, the talk was about the tough game on Saturday. We settled back into the comfortable chairs in this room, designed for chilling out with soft lighting and aroma candles, welcoming the opportunity to get together and relax somewhere different to the usual bars or restaurants.
There were sheepish grins and winks as we were led away by the black-clad therapists into the twisting corridor of the spa's men's wing. The spa is run by the people behind the Beautiful Skin Centre chain of salons and its dark woods, neutral tones and new age music piped throughout induce a feeling of relaxation as soon as you step from the elevator.
A 'dream journey' massage with 'aching muscle' aromatherapy oils is ordered for Ali Chaudhry, an appropriate choice for one of the team's more physical forwards who emerges from games more often than not with a black eye. 'It nearly sent me to sleep,' he says shyly afterwards. 'My shoulder has been really stiff since the game on Saturday and the massage has taken a lot of that away.'
A blissful 'dry float' is chosen for me. In a darkened room filled with just candlelight and the sounds of Chinese 'tea' music, the treatment begins. The therapist first brushes the skin all over the body with a brush to massage the lymphatic system responsible for draining infection from the body, a fitting treat since I suffered a bad leg infection last season from the grazes which curse second-row players. A coconut and frangipani oil is massaged in, the exotic fragrance taking the mind on a brief holiday to more sultry climes. I am lowered into the float which suspends the body in a cushion of air bags while wrapped in towels 'like a big hug', in the words of my therapist, Louise. The spa says the 30 minutes of flotation is as beneficial as eight hours of sleep. I certainly feel reinvigorated afterwards - also thanks to the facial, scalp and foot massage delicately and warmly administered by Louise. My skin is soft for the rest of the week and I don't break out after the facial as I feared.
Forward Mark Webb emerges all smiles from his combined treatment of a back massage, facial and foot reflexology.