The Hong Kong 10s was my first proper rugby tour, 40 years later I still remember it all

The Tradition HKFC 10s celebrates its 40th anniversary this week and it’s fair to say a lot has changed since that inaugural tournament in 1986. Shah Sahari looks back at that first event ahead of Tuesday’s opening matches. Ah, 10-a-side rugby: the version for those who fancy themselves as sevens players but without quite having the speed, mobility and physique for it. Back in the dawn of time – 40 years ago, actually – the Hong Kong Football Club, having already launched what was to become the best sevens rugby tournament in the world a decade before, decided to do the same for their heftier brethren to mark the club’s centenary year. And why not? Playing in a 10s tournament was a great reason to come to Hong Kong a bit early before the sevens, on top of the shopping, eating and general touring. And so was born the HKFC 10-A-Side Cup, which in keeping with the times was sponsored by cigarette brand Benson & Hedges. I was lucky enough to play in that first one, and it is a memory that still stays with me to this day. A final-year student at university, I had just joined the Singapore Cricket Club, one of the prominent rugby-playing expatriate clubs in the Southeast Asian region, and when asked if I wanted to play in this new tournament we had been invited to, I didn’t have to think twice. While our team was filled mainly with British expatriates – captains of industry, lots of varsity and private school types – we also had a smattering of local players, including Singapore representatives and relatively young pups such as me. What we locals did have was a lot more experience of playing 10s, which, after all, was “invented” in the region, at Cobra Rugby Club in Kuala Lumpur in the late 1960s. So, off to Hong Kong we went, into a field of just 12 teams that year, mainly from around the region and a few from further afield, such as Askeans RFC of Kent, the Pacific Command team and Sydney University. I had been on a rugby trip before, but that was on a Singapore Combined Schools visit to Bangkok, where we played against two of Thailand’s top colleges, and it was not quite the real deal. This trip to Hong Kong, on the other hand, provided me with my first taste of a grown-up rugby tour, and all that entails. It was the time I learned that touring meant a busy mix of training – at Victoria Park, of all places – eating, drinking, playing, socialising, partying, rinsing and repeating. It was my first encounter with some tough old hombres from several countries, though the rugby was hard but never dirty or vicious – it was, after all, rugby in Asia and in the amateur era. And it also meant my first taste of a genuine rugby dinner, which in this case started off with polite speeches, prize giving and general bonhomie before transitioning quickly into raunchy rugby songs, food fights and men performing skits without trousers. On the field, the rugby was much less structured than today, with everything, including the players, looking more messy and off the cuff. But we were no less skilful and fairly fit and strong, though nothing like the professionals of today. The top sides at Sports Road in Happy Valley that week were Hong Kong, minus those playing in the sevens that weekend, along with Askeans, Sydney University and Muscat from Oman. And that is how they finished at the wash. SCC were one of the top clubs in Singapore at the time, and we started off with a tough loss to eventual runners-up Askeans 18-12. We then beat the Manila Nomads 11-0 to clinch a quarter-final spot the next day against the hosts, HKFC, who beat us 16-4, though the match was closer than the score suggests. HKFC in turn went on to lose in the semis to Hong Kong, who finished off the job by beating Askeans 6-0 in the final. And so, with no plate or bowl tournaments, that was us out of the tournament. But we had reason to feel it was a job well done; we were not humiliated or outclassed. An indication of where we stood came over the next few years when a combined team of our usual local adversaries, the men from the New Zealand Force Southeast Asia based in Singapore, won the subsequent three editions of the tournament. The beauty of rugby festivals is the chance to mingle with and make friends, and also to bump into the occasional famous face. In that first year, the biggest name was probably Graham Mourie, who was there as a spectator a few years after captaining the All Blacks, and we also crossed paths with Scottish legend John “the White Shark” Jeffrey, whose Co-optimists side training for that weekend’s sevens used the same changing room as we did. Two years after my debut, I watched the likes of Wales and British & Irish Lions legend Graham Price, and the wildly popular England and Lions flanker Mickey Skinner take to the pitch. And once the 10s was over, I got my first taste of the Hong Kong Sevens, which at that point was really beginning to pick up momentum as a “must-attend” event. And we were lucky to be there the year New Zealand really showed that they were going to be very good at seven-a-side rugby – following a humiliation by Fiji two years before. After being part of that team taken apart 26-0 by the Fijians, Kiwi captain David Kirk brought to Hong Kong in 1986 a team full of eventual legends of the game. These included super coach Wayne Smith, unbeaten All Black captain Wayne Shelford and drop-kicking superstar No 8 Zinzan Brooke. No surprise that they won, beating the French Barbarians, who upset Australia in the semi-finals – just as the French national team were to do the following year at the inaugural Rugby World Cup. Kirk himself went on to lift the Webb Ellis Cup at that tournament, before embarking on a career in politics and business, eventually leading to his current role in New Zealand as the head of the NZRFU. As for me, like so many others, it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with the sevens. I did come back to play once more at the 10s – fittingly enough, a decade after that first tournament – but it was now different, though not in a bad way. By then, rugby was in the early days of professionalism and it was obvious the standard had gone up several notches. The tournament was also bigger, with more teams and spectators, and slicker organisation. And we now had teams from even more diverse countries, including Samoa, Fiji and in our case, the Durban Juniors from South Africa. The Springboks by then were world champions and their representatives everywhere were no doubt eager to give everyone lessons on how to play the game and to do it with extreme physicality. It was, I guess, my cue to call it a day for this level of rugby. But I have been back as a spectator since, and in most respects, the 10s has never changed. It is still a great place to catch up with old teammates and opponents, and a nice way to warm up for the sevens weekend. Long may the Hong Kong 10s continue to inspire, to thrill and to entertain. Happy 40th.

The Hong Kong 10s was my first proper rugby tour, 40 years later I still remember it all

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The Tradition HKFC 10s celebrates its 40th anniversary this week. Shah Sahari played witness to the tournament’s humble beginnings

The Tradition HKFC 10s celebrates its 40th anniversary this week. Shah Sahari played witness to the tournament’s humble beginnings