Rugby | Macau Bats to field team in Malaysian youth tournament

The team during training sessions in January

Local youth rugby club, Macau Bats, will be sending a group of under-14 players to an international tournament in Malaysia next weekend.

The tournament, which is called the KL Saracens International Rugby 10s, is now in its 10th year. It will take place this year on February 18 and 19 at the Bukit Kiara Equestrian and Country Resort in Kuala Lumpur, attracting the participation of youth teams from across Southeast Asia.

“This is a big and prestigious tournament for the players because teams are coming from across Southeast Asia. […] It is the toughest children’s [rugby] competition in the region,” Macau Bats Rugby Club president Simon Carrington told the Times.

“Historically we have ended up in the bottom half of the results table as we are a small club and the tournament is very competitive,” said Carrington, “We are hoping this year to do better and to finish in the top eight.”

The team has stepped up its training sessions ahead of the tournament, which Carrington describes as the “highlight of the season.”

They train every Saturday morning between September and May and play some Sunday matches in Hong Kong. “There is additional training on Tuesdays now, and the intensity has been ramped up ahead of the tournament,” said Carrington.

“We have our final training match this Sunday in Hong Kong against a local team there. Then we will set off [to Malaysia] on the following Friday.”

According to Malaysia’s The Star, some 195 teams will, this year, compete across 11 age group categories ranging from under-6s to under-18s. More than 3,000 young players from Macau, Hong Kong, Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore are expected to attend.

In 2016, more than 500 games were played during the two-day tournament by a field of 173 teams. That year Macau did not send a delegation, despite competing in the two previous years, because of a lack of available players, explained Carrington.

The deputy president of host team KL Saracens, which is partnered with a rugby team in the U.K. and part of the Saracens Global Network, told The Star that the annual tournament is “an avenue for all players, coaches, parents and supporters to exhibit the great sportsmanship and camaraderie that had grown since it started in 2008.”

He added that the competition could generate tourism revenues to the tune of 8 million Malaysian Ringgit (MOP14.4 million).