Hong Kong Premiership star Luke van der Smit ready to ‘dust off the lungs’ for Sandy Bay ahead of new season

The 26-year-old loose forward explains why level of Hong Kong rugby will be ‘out of this world’ in five years’ time

Van der Smit says domestic league ‘gets taken up such a huge notch every year’ as he outlines own World Cup ambitions

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South African rugby player Luke van der Smit played for Hong Kong-based South China Tigers in first Global Rapid Rugby season. Photo: Handout

Published: 8:00am, 12 Oct 2020Updated: 9:57pm, 12 Oct 2020

The Saxo Markets Men’s Premiership’s player of the year, Luke van der Smit, says his team is locked and loaded for the new season scheduled to kick-off on November 7 as he eyes his first national team call-up.

The momentum-dictating loose forward was named the 2018/19 player of the year after Herbert Smith Freehills HKU Sandy Bay RFC’s miraculous campaign in which they went from being rock bottom of the table to winning the Grand Championship. While the 2019/20 season was technically completed, the Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU) did not pick an end-of-season winner having cancelled its awards ceremony due to Covid-19.

“It’s something I’ll remember till the day I die,” said the 26-year-old van der Smit, adding that he and his teammates would not be competing this year “if we didn’t think we could win it”.

With less than a month left of what has been a Covid-19-induced makeshift preseason, Namibia-born South Africa-raised Van der Smit conceded it took a couple of weeks to acclimatise to training solo during government restrictions.

Herbert Smith Freehills HKU Sandy Bay (red) wins during the Grand Championship game versus Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish at King's Park in Jordan. Photo: SCMP / Dickson Lee

“As of right now, we’re back to training in small groups and they’ve been working us hard. It’s the strongest I’ve felt in my whole life,” he said.