Select não falo Português! Rugby a Winner in Macau

Select made history on Saturday November 29 (or at least history this century) by becoming the first 15 a-side team to play in Macau since the handover. Macau had recently beaten international heavyweights Mongolia, Cambodia, Pakistan and Indonesia and were looking to add the higher IRB ranked HKFC Select to the list.

Macau had been given approval to play at the Macau Canidrome Club (or dogtrack to you stay-at-home heathens), and the pitch was well grassed and watered. They kindly acceded to our request to play rolling subs, so as to allow all our tourists to have a run, as you would have expected an avalanche of players to participate in the highlight of the season for any Club player so far this year, especially as Drags and Scorps were not playing.

So 18 players made the trip, to play against the 30 internationals selected by Macau.
The appalling list of excuses included “my missus won’t let me go”, “I need to go to a dinner party” and “I can’t find my passport”. Pathetic, particularly as Matt Semple had endured a 20 hour white knuckle bus ride from Bangkok to Phuket to catch 2 connecting flights to get back to Hong Kong in time

Anyway to the game – Select held up well in the first half and led 6 – 0 at the break. Colin “Tight Hammie” Begg played a short cameo and Brownie had to come out of the front row to play at inside centre. Matt Smith controlled the back line and Yutaka exorted the forwards to “make them suffer”. Tired legs meant the second half was disappointing as the waves of fresh players from Macau took the ball to us. Final score 9 – 24.

After the game it was back to the bars and cafes of Old Taipa for a rich cultural learning experience. Macau were extremely generous hosts, and Select promised to reciprocate when they play in Hong Kong. Players of the Day: 3 points – Yutaka, 2 - Freddie B, 1 – Iain Boothby. And if you want to know more, come to play in Macau next time.

Roll of Honour: James Thomson, Danny Browne, Colin Wong, James Manders, Yutaka Yazawa, Tony George, Rob Gabbe, Howard White, Federico Bogna, Tom Wardell, Iain Boothby, Matt Smith, Colin Begg, Liam Richardson, Chad Snihur, Jason Toms, Matt Semple, Sean Purdie