‘Some people may think touch rugby was not a good choice for a girl’: Hong Kong star Rebecca Wong says sport has been a huge part of her life since childhood

If you’re trying to find Rebecca Wong Chi-ling, her weeks are designed and orchestrated around the sport she loves: touch rugby.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, the Hong Kong native can be found at King’s Park training with the Hong Kong national touch team. On Tuesdays and Thursdays you will find her with her Education University of Hong Kong team at the Pak Shek Kok Sports Grounds, and on Thursday and Sunday nights she is either in Happy Valley or the Po Kong Village with the Raven Touch Football Club.

This is all on top of physical education studies at the Education University of Hong Kong for Wong, who has a goal of becoming a P.E. teacher to help promote sports and active living, which would include introducing touch rugby in schools.

“It seems really busy, but I enjoy every one of them,” said the 22-year-old Wong. “These training sessions help me to have better time management between my academic affairs and the sport, and help me to relax from the daily stress and build up good social connections with teammates.”

Wong is in Japan with the Hong Kong national women’s touch team, the first for the programme which used to only have a mixed team. Her involvement started long ago, in primary school at Po Leung Kuk Siu Hon Sum. Wong said one of her teachers sparked her interest in the sport, and watching the older kids have fun pricked her interest as well.

“I thought they were so cool, so I decided to join the tag rugby and followed them. We were so passionate there were games during lunch time every school day, no matter if the weather was good or not, which was on top of normal training twice a week as well. At that time, I was almost going to school only for the sake of touch rugby.”

With the rise of “touch football”, as it is known in some circles, the sport replaced tag rugby, said Wong, and she made the transition quite easily, even though the learning curve was high. “Touch”, as it is also known, first started in Australia in the early 1960s as a warm-up game for rugby union players and now features more than 50 member countries at the international level.

“Compared to tag rugby, touch football was comparatively more technical, and hard to attack, as the defender could easily stop the attacker,” Wong said. “At that time, I was frustrated as I thought the sport was not that exciting [compared with] the previous one. However, I found it interesting after I came to understand more about the sport.”

Wong is one of the Hong Kong Rugby Union’s “The Unstoppables”, which supports World Rugby’s global campaign to help raise interest in the women’s game around the world called “Try and Stop Us”. Wong said she encountered resistance as a young girl when she gravitated towards rugby instead of more traditional endeavours for girls at that time.

“Some people may think that touch rugby was not a good choice for a girl to play, as it is a dangerous sport and girls may easily get hurt.”

However, she said this didn’t stop her and it shouldn’t stop any girl or woman getting into the sport, regardless of body type or background.

“Touch rugby is suitable for everyone, no matter if you run fast or slow, if your agility is good or not. It is a team sport, teammates complement each other, so everyone can find their position and enjoy it. Thus, body size is not a limitation for women, because it is not a sport only for people who run fast. We need to use our wisdom to win the game.”

The Hong Kong Touch Association was started in 2003 and Wong has represented the city more than 10 times in tournaments, including the 2019 Federation of International Touch World Cup in Malaysia where she competed with the mixed team, who came 15th overall. The first touch tournament was held in 1968 in New Zealand and the sport has grown into multiple divisions for men’s, women’s, mixed and trans teams.

Wong, who usually slots in out on the wing, said everyone can benefit.

“No matter which physique, body shape, and age you are, I am sure you can enjoy the happiness the sport gives you”.