GO TIGERS! Dear Parents, Friends and Alumni/ae,

Transcription

1 PRINCETON WOMEN S RUGBY HONG KONG TOUR

2 Dear Parents, Friends and Alumni/ae, This March, the Princeton Women s Rugby Team (PUWRFC) went on an historic Spring Break Tour to Hong Kong. This tour marked PUWRFC s first time playing in Asia, and we are very excited to share with you some of the highlights of our extraordinary week. Our activities ranged from playing the National Hong Kong 7s Team to learning from a panel of inspiring Princeton alumnae to hiking in beautiful Hong Kong Country Park. Not only was this tour about playing some excellent rugby, but also being exposed to the vibrant culture of Hong Kong. We are beyond grateful to everyone who made this historic tour possible. At the end of this document you will find a very interesting note from Emil Signes, PUWRFC Coaching Consultant. This tour marked his 21 st rugby trip to Hong Kong. This year, PUWRFC will be making a great effort to foster closer relationships with our alumni and friends. We love receiving your messages of support before games and we encourage you to come out to Haaga House to support us as we defend our home turf on Rickerson Field this spring. As always, GO TIGERS! 2

3 Day 1: We recovered from jetlag by venturing out to Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tan Big Buddha on Lantau Island. After trying our hand at navigating the MTR metro and bus system, we managed to arrive at the Big Buddha, which stands 34 meters high. We walked up the 268 steps to reach the giant statue a good warm up for practice! We tried local street food and enjoyed spotting wild animals around the island. We had dinner at Din Tai Fung Dumpling House before heading to bed early for practice the next morning. For some of our players, this was their first day spent outside of the United States. For Emil Signes, our legendary Coaching Consultant, this was his 21 st time travelling to the country. 3

4 Day 2: Once or twice per day we practiced on King s Park, the home of Hong Kong rugby, under the instruction of our phenomenal coaches Chris Ryan and Emil Signes. After a full day of practice on Monday, we went to Tsim Sha Tsui where we saw Hong Kong s famous skyline and light show. 4

5 Day 3: Our very own Stu Rickerson made a guest appearance at our practice on Tuesday and ran passing lines with some of our players! That afternoon, we took the tram up 1,811ft to Victoria Peak where, despite the mist, we got a grand view of the city. Later on, we went to Mong Kok Ladies Market where we tried out our haggling skills (to little avail for the most part!). 5

6 Day 4: Wednesday was perhaps one of the most exciting days on tour. We left early in the morning to get to the Hong Kong Sports Institute (HKSI), eager to play our first 7s game since Nationals in Denver last year. And what better way to kick off our 7s season than by playing the National Hong Kong 7s Team! We played four games (two A-side and two B-side) and were beaten in each of them, however we could still hold our heads high knowing that we put up a good fight against world-class rugby players. We were treated to a special lunch where we were able to mix and mingle with the players and we exchanged badges. Following lunch, Anna Richards, member of the World Rugby Hall of Fame and Head Coach of the Hong Kong side, gave us a comprehensive tour of the HKSI. It was a huge eye-opener for us players to see the sophisticated high-performance training techniques used behind the scenes at the institute and the many different departments that work towards improving the capabilities of each player. 6

7 On Wednesday afternoon, we took a break from training and competing to attend a panel presentation arranged by Hong Kong-based Princeton alumnus Jeff Blount 79. Jeff played on the men s team as an undergraduate. Despite living in Hong Kong for the past 20+ years, he retains a strong connection with the Princeton rugby program. The panel was comprised of prominent female members of the Hong Kong business community, including representatives from the financial services sector (Michele Windsor of Goldman Sachs), legal profession (Mimi Hutton of Withers), architecture and property sector (Ame Engelhart of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill), and entrepreneur Ro King. They described the opportunities and challenges of building successful and rewarding careers as expatriates in Hong Kong. It was a great opportunity for us to meet some impressive female role models and learn from their experiences. We cannot thank Mr Blount enough for organizing this panel and for his support in making this Tour a great success. The panel presentation was followed by a special dinner to thank the Hong Kong Rugby Union and Princeton alumni who helped to put together this tour. We were also joined by many Princeton alumni from the Princeton Club of Hong Kong and Princeton in Asia fellows. 7

8 Day 5: After our big tournament the day before, we were given a rest-day from practice on Friday. Emil Signes, Head Coach Chris Ryan and a few players had the privilege of getting a tour of the Hong Kong Rugby Stadium by Ruth Mitchell of the HK Rugby Union. Other players went back to the Ladies Market to improve their haggling skills, however most of the seniors stayed back at the hotel to work on their theses! We were lucky enough to meet Casey Gallagher 07 that evening, who treated us to a delicious barbeque on her rooftop. We were also very excited to see Casey come out to support us during our games. 8

9 Day 6: In the morning we hiked down to Big Wave Bay in Shek O Country Park where we kicked a ball around. Some of us even braved the chilly waters! We made it back in time for afternoon practice where we worked on our defensive line in preparation for our two big 15s games on Saturday. We broke off into our respective classes and spent dinner getting to know our classmates better. 9

10 Day 7: Our 15s games were against the all-star Hong Kong teams, made up of the best players from local clubs. We were defeated and 0-22 respectively in our two games but nevertheless put up a good fight and got some points on the board. For some of our rookies, it was their first time playing in a rugby game and we were very proud to see them out on the pitch! The Hong Kong side provided us with a dinner at the end of the day and we were able to socialize with the Hong Kong players and staff, many of whom expressed great interest in visiting Princeton in the coming years! 10

11 We are now back at West Windsor, training hard for the Rickerson Cup this weekend (2 nd April) and the Ivy 7s Championship (23 rd April) at which we hope to qualify for the USA Rugby College 7s National Championships. Our tour to Hong Kong will be instrumental in our season and in shaping as rugby players and as members of the PUWRFC family. An enormous thank you once again to everyone who has been so generous in helping to make this historic tour possible. We ve been extremely lucky to have had support from coaching staff Peter Kelly and Lauren Rhode 12 *16 this semester (plus a surprise visit from Janet Thomasson 12!) who have been working alongside the incredible duo of Chris Ryan and Emil Signes. We look forward to carrying on the PUWRFC tradition this season. This report was prepared by Gabe Armstrong-Scott 18, PUWRFC President. Photo credits to Jade Williams, Kendall Bedford, Rusty Hanson, Gozar Images, Jochebed Muflam, Kasturi Shah, Jesenia Haynes and Jeff Blount. 11

12 A note from Emil Signes: I'd just like to make a few notes based on this trip, perhaps putting it in the context of my 20 previous trips to Hong Kong between 1987 and All of these were rugby trips: 18 of them either as coach, manager or video analyst for one of the US national teams - men or women -, one of them as a journalist for Rugby Magazine, and one as a coach of a women's club side that led to the first-ever international women's sevens tournament in That 1997 women's tournament and its successors have been credited with setting the stage for sevens rugby's introduction to the Olympics later this year. But I digress. Hong Kong, in large part because of its best-in-the-world international sevens rugby tournament each March (we just missed it by 2 weeks this year), has developed quite strong rugby teams over the years, both men and women. You should know that the teams against which we played were not college teams, but senior teams consisting of players whose ages probably ranged from their late teens to their 30s. In the case of the sevens teams against whom we competed, they were professional rugby players housed at the Hong Kong Sports Institute. They are competing for a spot in the Olympics and paid to play rugby as their full-time job. As Gabe noted their coach Anna Richards, who played for the New Zealand national team for many years, is a member of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. There is one spot left for the Olympics (only 12 nations will compete), and Hong Kong is among a group of countries still in contention for that last spot, which will be determined in June. The teams against whom we competed in the 15-a-side competition were Hong Kong Select Sides, chosen from several Hong Kong teams, and comprising several players that also represent Hong Kong's national team. So even though we lost all the games on tour, imagine the scenario again: a team of year olds, all from just one university - with an average of a bit less than 2 years experience plays against a national team of players not restricted by age. We represented Princeton exceptionally well and I was very proud of the way the team competed; against more athletic and more experienced teams we weren't intimated at all by their physicality and held our own in that aspect of the game. I think everyone came away feeling that, from a rugby point of view (as well as from the non-rugby aspects of the tour of course), it was a very worthwhile experience. And the opportunity to play teams of that level was quite unique. Gabe prepared her report far more quickly than I was able to formulate anything, but in the next couple of weeks I will tack on - for our records - a brief description of the games themselves, and of our lineups and our scoring. Certainly in the 12 plus years I've been at Princeton, this was our most ambitious tour ever, and from both rugby and cultural perspectives, it was a fabulous experience! Emil Signes P.S. Gabe didn't mention it, but on our way back (we flew via Shanghai to minimize cost), we missed our connection and had to spend 24 hours in Shanghai; despite my 21 trips to Hong Kong I'd never been in "mainland China" before - nor had anyone else except Shanghai resident Jessica Lu. It was a 24-hour "bonus" addition; we even got an additional 24-hour visa stamped in our passports (and Jess got to spend a night at home). 12