The South China Tigers is a professional

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

team from

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

that plays in the

Global Rapid Rugby Global Rapid Rugby was an international rugby union competition that launched a showcase series for six professional teams in 2019, played in locations across the Asia-Pacific region. Rapid Rugby matches are slightly shorter than the tradition ...

competition. The team was launched in 2018 to participate in the inaugural Global Rapid Rugby season. For the naming of the team, South China tigers are considered as the most distinctive of all tiger subspecies. The population once numbered more than 4,000 in the wild, distributed from

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

in the north to as far south as Hong Kong.

History

The inaugural

season was played as a showcase series in 2019, with the South China Tigers playing four matches in the Asia Showcase. In the first Rapid Rugby match, Glyn Hughes scored the Tigers' first try in the ninth minute against the

Western Force The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competition in 2017. F ...

in Perth on 29 March 2019. The team secured their first Rapid Rugby victory a month later in a home match against the

Asia Pacific Dragons The Asia Pacific Dragons, also known as APDs, is a rugby union team based in Singapore that played in the Global Rapid Rugby Showcase Series of 2019. History The team is owned and managed by Carinat Sports Marketing based in Hong Kong. The t ...

, winning 29–19 at the Aberdeen Sports Ground.

Players and personnel

Squad

The squad for the 2020 season includes:

Staff

Appointments for the 2019 season:

Records

Season standings

Global Rapid Rugby Notes:

2019 Rapid Rugby matches in the Asia showcase.

Head coaches

Craig Hammond __NOTOC__ Craig may refer to: Geology *Craig (landform), a rocky hill or mountain often having large casims or sharp intentations. People (and fictional characters) *Craig (surname) *Craig (given name) Places Scotland *Craig, Angus, aka Barony of ...

(2019–present)

Captains

Liam Slatem Liam is a short form of the Irish name Uilliam or the old Germanic name William. Etymology The original name was a merging of two Old German elements: ''willa'' ("will" or "resolution"); and ''helma'' ("helmet"). The juxtaposition of these el ...

and James Cunningham (2019) *

and Josh Dowsing (2020)

References

External links

*
HKRU website
{{Global Rapid Rugby Sports teams in Hong Kong Rugby union in Hong Kong 2018 establishments in Hong Kong Rugby clubs established in 2018 Rugby union clubs disestablished in 2020 2020 disestablishments in Hong Kong