Special honour for former Hong Kong international
Former HK international is honoured with a first-ever 'Colony Cap' for services to the game
With all the craftiness of a front-rower needling his counterpart under the referee's eye, Dave Lewis lets slip he holds a record no other player in Hong Kong can boast of - never losing an international sevens match.
"I have an unbeaten record at sevens, something which even the best Hong Kong players like Rowan Varty or Keith Robertson cannot claim," says Lewis gleefully.
But it wasn't for his sevens prowess that the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union picked Lewis as the first recipient of a "Colony Cap", given to players who distinguished themselves before the handover.
Instead, it was for his long and dedicated service in the Hong Kong front row at 15s that Lewis was honoured. To mark 60 years of Hong Kong rugby, the union launched a commemorative cap campaign. Two designs, one for the pre-1997 players and one post-1997, have been commissioned with Andy Yuen Kin-ho getting the red Hong Kong SAR equivalent. Over the next six months, players from each of the past six decades will be awarded with retroactive caps.
"I'm very honoured to be the first recipient," said Lewis, 52. "When the old guys meet occasionally, always when Hong Kong are playing an international, we start reminiscing about the old days. The union facilitates such meetings with a get-together, but now by awarding caps they have taken it another step and it is very touching," said Lewis, a chief inspector of police.
Born in Hong Kong, Lewis left for the UK with his parents when he was 18 months old. He returned to join the Royal Hong Kong Police Force as a 28-year-old in October 1988 after completing two five-year military stints, the first with the Royal Marines followed by that in the Oman army.