SKILLS HONED AS CHINA TACKLES RUGBY
Development of the sport on fast track as popularity increases
Xia Jialiang was quick to fall in love with rugby and is now spreading his enthusiasm for the sport as it makes rapid strides in China.
Xia has the perfect build for rugby, standing eye-toeye with many opponents at 1.8 meters and weighing 96 kilograms. At 36, he is the oldest player on the Chinese national team.
Xia said American football attracts young Chinese men mostly because of its “cool gear and uniforms”, while rugby — which originated in England in the first half of the 19th century — remains a little-known sport in China.
“In Chongqing, 90 percent of those playing American football are Chinese, while 90 percent of the rugby players are foreigners,” Xia, founder and owner of the Chongqing Rangers Rugby Club, as well as a player, told China Daily.
“But the scenario will change very soon, as the development of rugby in China is on a fast track right now, thanks to its return to the Olympic stage.”
Earlier in the day, Xia hosted the closing ceremony of Chongqing’s first rugby youth training camp and a match between players. The 15-day camp attracted 20 men and 17 women who had never played the sport before.
At his training center in Shizishan Sports Park, Xia also runs the Simba Rugby Youth Club.
He is also busy putting together the first professional male and female rugby teams to compete for Chongqing at the 14th National Games in 2021.
Xia, a farmer’s son from Chongqing, knew nothing about rugby when he began his studies at Shenyang Sport University, Liaoning province, in 2003, majoring in basketball.
He was spotted by the school’s rugby team coach while practicing basketball and was invited to a trial the next day. His outstanding physical strength and good team spirit helped him to get into the school team, one of the best in China.
“I immediately fell in love with the sport,” he said. “It lets me release all my energy and I enjoy the physicality and team play very much.”
Xia returned to his hometown after graduating in 2007 and became a trainer at a fitness club. But he and some foreign friends soon formed a team, the first one in Chongqing, a metropolis of 30 million people in Southwest China.
It has developed into one of the top teams in China, with three players selected for the national side last year.
The club has about 30 registered players who come from all walks of life and other provinces, such as Yunnan and Guangdong. About 80 percent of the players are from overseas including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Fiji and Samoa.
“They are students, Englishlanguage teachers and even policemen,” Xia said. “We are connected by a love for rugby, just like a brotherhood.”
The players conduct daily practice sessions themselves and gather in Chongqing to train for three to four days before matches.
“Usually the matches have no prize money and there are no spectators,” Xia said. “We play rugby for nothing but passion.”
Rangers has finished top of the southwest division of the Chinese Amateur Rugby League several times and its best ranking is fourth place in a national tournament.
Olympic preparations
Rugby, known as “olive ball” in China because of the ball’s shape, is a popular sport primarily played in Britain, its former colonies and other countries including France, Italy, Argentina and Japan.
China Agricultural University formed China’s first rugby team in 1990, followed by a number of other universities in large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province.
Rugby’s successful expansion in Chinese schools prompted sports authorities to set up the Chinese Rugby Football Association in 1996. A year later, China became a member of World Rugby, the sport’s international governing body.
Rugby had been developing very slowly in China until Rugby Sevens was named an Olympic sport in 2009 to be staged at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro and the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
Chinese Olympic rugby teams were established in 2013 but both the men’s and women’s teams failed to qualify for the Rio Games.
Liu Rongyao, secretary-general of the Chinese Rugby Football Association, said during the 2017 National Games: “Rugby has just started to grow in China. There are only just over 1,000 registered male and female players in the country.”
In October 2016, Alisports, an arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba, signed a $100 million partnership deal with World Rugby, aimed at increasing the sport’s popularity in China.
Brett Gosper, CEO of World Rugby, set a target of recruiting 1 million new players in China in the following 10 years, China Daily reported.
“Already, in the space of a year, we have seen player participation numbers at least double in China, going from a base of about 75,000, where it had been for a few years, to adding about 100,000 players,” Gosper was quoted as saying.
To prepare for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, China launched a worldwide recruitment campaign for players in August last year. The main targets are players of Chinese descent living abroad who may want to represent China at the sport.
The country has been working closely with the rugbyplaying nations of Samoa and Fiji. There are many descendants of early Chinese immigrants on these Pacific islands.
In addition to Xia, Chongqing Rangers has two foreign players on the national team.
According to World Rugby, if a player lives in a foreign country for 36 months consecutively before Dec 31, 2020, he or she can represent that country in international matches. But for Olympics, the player must hold the passport of the adopted country.
Taofia Junior Tuimauga, 27, from Samoa, arrived in Shanghai in 2012 and is now studying communication engineering at Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications on a Chinese government scholarship.
“I started to play rugby when I was 6 and almost everyone in my country can play the sport,” he said.“But here, most people know nothing about it.”
In 2014, he began to play rugby at a club in Shanghai as a hobby.
“At that time, the competition level was very low and most players were foreigners,” he said. “But now it is improving very fast with a lot of Chinese teams coming up.”
Ratu Totivi Dakainiviti Ralulu, 24, from Fiji, arrived in China in 2014 and is studying land management at Kunming University of Science and Technology in Yunnan.
“Rugby has taken me to a lot of interesting Chinese cities,” he said. “I can play at great stadiums with wonderful grass fields. Back in Fiji, we don’t have such good facilities.”
The two islanders are enjoying life in China so much that they are thinking about getting jobs in rugby after graduation.
Local efforts
Rugby was introduced to the 12th National Games of China in 2013. Last year, nine men’s teams and 10 women’s teams competed at the 13th National Games. Shandong province in East China has dominated the sport, clinching both the men’s and women’s titles at both Games.
Only 11 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have formed rugby teams to date.
Zhao Xi, director of the training department at the Chongqing Sport Administration, believes the municipality can catch up with top rugby teams in a few years.
“It is still a new sport in China and competition is not very strong yet,” he said. “Rugby has been developing in Chongqing for a while, so we have the talent and skills.”
Sports authorities in Chongqing plan to work with Xia’s Rangers club and the local government, which is interested in developing the sport.
Xia will be responsible for scouting and managing the players and coaches. Banan district in the city will provide facilities for the teams.
Zhao said, “We will provide funding and other support needed to develop the sport.”
Last year, the Chongqing government started to promote rugby among middle school and university students and organize matches.
“We need to give more public exposure to the sport as well as competitive opportunities to players,” Zhao said.
Chen Yijie, a soccer coach at Jiangkou Middle School in Yunyang county, Chongqing, was one of the first to respond to the rugby development plan.
Chen’s school, 310 kilometers from the downtown area, is one of numerous schools where soccer is played in China, with the country making unprecedented efforts to raise the level of the sport in recent years. Schools that are selected can receive special funding to set up teams, and top players from middle schools can go on to study at good Chinese universities.
“There are over 800 such schools in Chongqing alone and the competition is too fierce,” Chen said. “Why not try rugby? Maybe we have a better chance in the new sport.”
More than 20 Chinese universities now have rugby teams and are scouting for talent among high school graduates every year.
Chen, referred by the Chinese Rugby Football Association, reached out to Xia’s Rangers for help. In early July, Chen brought 17 female soccer players to train at Chongqing Rangers Rugby Youth Training Camp.
Xia said Dong Lingling, 18, from Chen’s team, who plays center back at soccer, has the talent to play rugby.
“Chongqing girls are really fit for the sport,” Xia said. “They are strong and fast, and most important, very aggressive.”
In addition to different techniques and strategies, Dong finds rugby very similar to soccer. “It is not a dangerous sport at all if you have proper protection,” she said. “It is easy to learn and interesting to play.”
Back from the training camp, Chen continues to train students at rugby after the daily soccer program.
“I am learning to become a rugby coach,” he said.
Promising future
Compared with the late start to rugby made by Dong and Xia, Chen Xingyu represents the future of the sport in China, as he started to play the game when he was 5.
His father Chen Dongxing, a businessman in Chongqing, encourages his son to play all kinds of sports. About six months ago, he took him to the Rangers Simba Rugby Youth Camp.
“I like to watch American Football, but rugby suits kids more,” he said. “It is safer and more gentlemanly.”
Chinese and foreign coaches teach the sport in Chinese and English. Boys and girls train together once a week. Parents help their children to practice at home every day, and training costs about the same as that for other sports, such as basketball, tennis and swimming.
“My son has changed a lot since taking up rugby,” Chen Dongxing said. “He has become a team player, and plays by the rules.”
In the past, his son did not like team sports because he found it difficult to get along with others, the father added.
Chen Xingyu said: “Rugby is fun. I make many friends at the club and I am getting stronger.”
Besides enhancing his son’s physical strength, Chen Dongxing has a bigger plan — to see him become a professional rugby player.
“Since some primary schools have begun to set up rugby teams, my son can start from there and then if he wants to go professional, he will have my full support,” he said.
“Even if he just plays rugby as a hobby, the sport can help him make more friends at home and abroad.”
Usually the matches have ... no spectators. We play rugby for nothing but passion.”
Xia Jialiang, Chinese national team player