The Future Of The Tradition HKFC Tens 

Following the first-time inclusion of a women’s section at the Tradition HKFC Tens 2023 tournament, we spoke with the coach of the only participating Hong Kong team, Chris Garvey, and the Commercial Manager of HKFC Rugby Section, Roshini Turner – who herself is a Hong Kong national team XV player.

Chris Garvey is the Head Coach of the women’s team at Hong Kong Football Club, and he led the HKFC Natixis Ice to the Nan Fung | SEWIT Women’s Hong Kong Premiership this season before losing the Grand Final against Societe Generale Valley RFC in a close game 10-13 – a team he had formerly led to a number of successive Hong Kong Premiership titles (and one his partner still plays for). 

It was HKFC Natixis Ice’s first League title since joining the top-flight, 8 years after securing promotion. HKFC Natixis Fire also won the Women’s Championship B,  so the club is building depth in women’s rugby. Garvey had the privilege of coaching a makeshift HKFC Ice team at the Tradition HKFC 10s albeit with a number of season regular players unavailable.

Roshini Turner grew up in Hong Kong, and like so many of her peers, ventured overseas to study, but she returned from Durham University in the UK with a degree and with the ambition to represent Hong Kong in rugby. She played the 2022-2023 domestic season under Chris at HKFC and was the team captain, but like a wider pool of HK national team players, was not allowed to play at the HKFC Tens, which we feel is a missed opportunity for HKRU and the development of their female playing pool.

Chris Garvey HKFC Natixis Ice – Women’s Head Coach – HKFC Tens 2023

What It Meant To Have The HKFC Tens Back

Chris Garvey: Obviously, fantastic. It’s been so long since we’ve had this, there’s been a really nice vibe around Hong Kong, the buildup and the Tens are a big part of that as well. And obviously, everyone was very excited for the Sevens after they had a half Sevens last time around (November 2022) in terms of the crowd and capacity. 

It does start feeling like Hong Kong is coming back into business and it’s great for the club it’s just great for rugby.

Roshini Turner: It’s great, and I want to emphasise that the HKFC 10s is such a big part of the rugby week. There is of course the Sevens, and the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens is the main event that most people come to town for. But there is a festival atmosphere about this, everyone does get up for it even if it’s on a Wednesday and Thursday. I think we almost have to be there because we’re such a key lead-up to that final event at the Hong Kong stadium.

How Big A Step Is It To Have The Women Playing The HKFC Tens?

Tournaments like this, and we assume the Kowloon Social Tens rugby will be back in 2024, makes this the best sevens and rugby week in the world because there are so many activities and a range of functions. 

2023 is obviously special not only for having the tournament back, but women’s rugby is part of the HKFC Tens for the first time in 35 years. We asked them for their thoughts on having women’s rugby as part of the Tradition HKFC 10s

Chris Garvey: I think it’s necessary to have this as part of a Tradition HKFC Tens. I’m very, very grateful we’ve got people now championing the women’s game. And it can only get bigger. There are many little things that we could talk about now that weren’t quite right, it’s not quite there. But we’ll get it right and I think it can only go from strength to strength. 

The women’s final was a far greater game than the men’s final, which is pretty good at the end of it. 

I think we’re well past that question of this women’s game being secondary. It is now a showcase event and apparently, we are getting more women’s teams next year. The event is getting bigger, whether it’s women’s or men’s. So we’re off to a really good start and I’m grateful for the people who are just pushing forward to make this happen, such as Roshini. 

Roshini Turner: Yeah, I think strategically, with women’s rugby, you’ve got that elite tier. So you’ve got maybe your top tier 15 teams and your top tier sevens teams, but there’s nothing really that fills that gap. 

Actually, the Tens perfectly showcases that tier of players who are about to make it or who will emerge in the game. And that’s very much where the Tens sits. I’m glad that we sort of filled that gap because it needs to be filled more often and those girls need to get the game time we’re talking about – they’re just not getting the competitions. 

Chris Garvey: We’ve had a couple of fringe national 7s team players (New Zealand with the HKFC Natixis Ice) playing with us and they were both playing out of position so they get very challenged on their skillset as well on the work-ons. Our girls learn so much from them in terms of attitude and raising energy, and the technical side of things and for players to push themselves to learn. 

I think there’s a big need for this level of competition to keep developing this game, especially in Hong Kong. We don’t get this level of competition week in and week out, just exposing our players to this level of competition is wonderful.

Why the HKRU Women’s National Team Players Were not Involved at the HKFC Tens

Roshini Turner: The national team, at the moment, is focused on the Asia Rugby XV Series. We are planning on touring Europe later in 2023 and I know it’s been confirmed we’re playing Sweden, and then the Netherlands in Amsterdam.

We are also having a game in Hong Kong as a preparation game and competing with all the qualified national team players which I think will be really good anyway (the match takes place this weekend on April 15 2023 with the HK Dragons playing a combined World XV).

Funnily enough, Sweden’s Women’s team National Head Coach Tamara Taylor played the HKFC Tens tournament with the eventual champions – RKS Legal Samurai Warriors. She is an England centurion (115 caps) and in her team was also Rochelle ‘Rocky’ Clark with 137 national appearances – both were Rugby World Cup winners. Samurai also had a number of Australian fringe players and some who have played in the Sevens World Sevens Series. 

That raises the question of whether it would be of benefit to the local national team and other Hong Kong players to be persuaded to join the HKFC Tens rather than be kept away from facing very talented players. With the national Sevens players frozen out of competing for obvious reasons (they were playing the main HK 7s that weekend) and with all national XV players barred from competing – while world-class competitors were in their backyard seems a strange choice.

The five competing women’s teams benefited from having fringe World Sevens Series players added to their squads.

Photo Credit – HKsportsfinder.hk – Commercial Manager of the Tradition HKFC Tens Roshini Turner playing for HK XV

HKFC Tens Could Be A Great Developing Ground For Asian Teams

There were five women’s teams including two from Asia who played the 2023 Tradition HKFC Tens; one from Hong Kong, one from Japan and three international touring teams.

Across those five teams, with so many international players and professional coaches, it was great for the players and the fans to see these names, to get the photos, to get the selfies. What changes would you like to see moving forward?

Roshini Turner: It’s hard to say as there are some limitations that we have. I think there’s a lot that can be changed and the advantage we have is that we own these grounds, we own the pitch. So we can change the format – like do we play 15 minutes one way with no halftime and we get quicker games? I would argue the format’s a little bit too long, maybe.

Chris Garvey: We played six games over two days, that’s far more rugby than you would usually play. Actually the fatigue and the injury rate I think from some of the teams were quite high. I would love to see fewer minutes per game or fewer matches and I think you might actually get a better quality of rugby.

Roshini Turner: That’s a good point and it might make it slightly more competitive – factors like fatigue and how well some of these athletes recover, from an HKFC  perspective, we’re very much looking to review this strategically of where we need to take the tournament for it to be financially sustainable, but also to be a great advocate, for both men’s and women’s rugby.

The HKFC Tens could really appeal to a number of Asian national teams who could use it as a development platform – sides from, for example, Singapore and Thailand topped up with some international talent is a real learning opportunity. Or an Asian barbarian side could enter in addition to more Hong Kong domestic teams playing.

The China Five Stars played in the men’s section and featured current and former China national team players who benefited from the experience and reached the Bowl Final in 2023. While the Tokyo Sankyu Phoenix made the Cup Final for the women and is a top team in Japan and a feeder club to the national team.

What Innovations Could The HKFC Tens Introduce?

Roshini Turner:  We could be experimental like having a golden minute where basically you score and get double the points, or use some of the ideas from Global Rapid Rugby. Rugby has struggled to be financially sustainable and to be a good commercial product. And we have to experiment for it to attract a bigger audience.

I’m sure there are loads of people who are more traditional and think it’s crazy, it’s too mad, but we’re trying to expand the game and if everyone’s working towards its best interests, it’s going to get to a better place.

Chris Garvey: That’s a natural progression –  moving from 10s, then there’s how can we make this relevant to the youth? How can we make this an exciting game? I think there are things we can do to keep the players fresh. It’s a really nice place and people care deeply about what we’re trying to encourage and make this game strong for the future.

One of the highlights for me at the Tens was seeing our captain walk off the pitch and the boys and girls asking for autographs. We don’t usually have this exposure.

Roshini Turner:  And for the local girls to see this and think “I can be a professional athlete.” I’ve spoken to a lot of parents this year, it’s something that we’ve really tried to emphasise, is trying to grow that relationship with the kids or the kids of the future. 

And I will say it over and over again. But we always disregard them because they didn’t matter as much as the premiership matches and players.

I would love for the girls to aspire to play for Hong Kong. But I think that’s always been the thing for me. I’ve always wanted to give back to Hong Kong –  I think that’s always that’s maybe my moral compass. 

If more people aspire to actually play for Hong Kong and come back and play for us, and we’re able to do it because the youth system is proven – and it’s proven over and over again – it can produce such talent. (Hong Kong youth players have gone on to represent a number of national teams in the past 18 months alone).

I made that decision, having been in the UK, I made the conscious decision that I wanted to play for Hong Kong because that was where I grew up and where all my coaches were from and I felt the importance of giving back. There’s so much talent that is born and bred that people don’t know about in Hong Kong.

Roshini Turner with the Nan Fung | SEWIT Women’s Hong Kong Premiership League

Rugby Tournaments in Asia 2023

• Hong Kong China Sevens Teams – Challenger Series 2023.
• Taiyo Seimei Women’s Sevens Series 2023.
• NYC Sevens 2023 – Million Dollar Prize.
• HSBC France Sevens 2023 Pools.