‘Rugby, where you don’t get smacked’ – how the mixed gender sport of tag is bringing Hong Kong together

A balmy summer evening at the far end of Happy Valley’s grass pitches often conjures images of brawny rugby players bulldozing through a collision course of similarly-sized peers.

But fear not, average Hongkongers, as there is a new, all-inclusive, mixed gender, “minimal contact” version of the sport in town: tag rugby.

“We have older, smaller, unfit, super fit, sprinters … when you put all that together it can be really fun,” said Hong Kong Tag (HKTag) head coach James Elliot, a former Australian state-level tag player with more than 26 years’ experience in the sport, who is in charge of selecting Hong Kong’s debut 2018 Tag World Cup squad in Coff’s Harbour, Australia, this November.

Training and team trials looked like a poorly-cut people paper chain as the assortment of about 50 stood side-by-side for Elliot’s passing and movement drills.

“We’ve got some really experienced ex-national touch [rugby] players and some really quick kids … look at the age gap we have, [at training] tonight we had from 17 to 46 years old,” said Elliot, a full-time PE teacher at American International School (AIS).

‘Tag’, as it is simply known on the pitch, is based on rugby league rules but also draws techniques from touch and rugby union. It is a non-contact team game which means no tackling or dropping one’s shoulder ahead of a tagging scenario.