The Beginning

It all started with a group of Portuguese friends who had been avid rugby players back in Portugal. In January 1996 in support of the National team, who had been invited to join the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens Tournament for the first time in 1994, the Macau Rugby Club (Clube de Râguebi de Macau) was founded.

Since its early days, rugby in Macau has been supported by the Macau Sports Board (Instituto do Desporto) which has helped develop rugby in Macau. Training began at the turf ground near the Border Gate in 1996 and continued there until June 1999.

First Game

On February 10, 1996 Macau Rugby Club (MRC) played their first match against the Hong Kong Football Club, Rugby Section Contemptibles XV, where they drew at 12 – 12. The initial season was successful with the MRC playing against teams from Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Portugal.

First Tournament in Macau

The first Macau Rugby Tournament was held in March 1997, comprising of two teams from Portugal, Veteranos de Lisboa and Agronomia, one from PRC (People’s Republic of China) – Guangzhou, Agriculture University, and the Macau Rugby Club. The winners of the competition were the agronomists from Lisbon who defeated the Macanese team 15-0, despite heavy rain.

Tournaments in Macau

Macau 10’s

To promote the game in Macau and attract rugby tourists to their homeland MRC organized the Macau Rugby 10’s Tournament which was held for three consecutive years, from 1998 to 2000.

Due to the lack of available grounds, the competition was interrupted for a few years. However, from 2006 onwards the Club had access to a football pitch once a year taking the opportunity to invite teams from Hong Kong, Guangzhou and the Region to enjoy a full day of 10’s.

In 2008, the Cup was won by Valley from Hong Kong and the Plate by Guangzhou Rams.
Macau Beach Rugby

From 2001, the Club started to organize the Macau Beach Tournament with the participation of Macau, Hong Kong and Guangzhou teams and the very first woman’s competition took place in Macau in 2004.

The Macau Beach Rugby Tournament is now a very solid and exciting event, with 8 editions, which is held every year in September, and counts with the participation of 10 men teams and 4 women teams.

This year, on 6 September, Shenzhen Dragons won the SJM Cup beating Macau on the final by 5 tries to 4. The Plate was won by the City of Dreams’ Team and the ladies’ trophy went to the Valley RFC.

Touring

1997 saw the team participating in two tournaments in Hong Kong as well as playing several other games in Macau and Guangzhou. The first tournament, Crosby Kowloon 10’s, in September 97 took the team to the final of the plate competition. They would not taste victory on that occasion, but in 1998, Macau Rugby Club took home the cup in the third division at the Hong Kong Treasure Land 7’s Tournament.

The Manila 10’s was to be the ultimate test in the teams overall strength and resistance. 1998 was the first time they had gone on tour and they managed to battle their way through qualifying rounds to reach the Cup. That same year, Macau organized and won its 1st Macau 10’s Tournament with teams from Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Alas, British Club Bangkok beat them 12 – 5, at Manila 10’s cup final in 1999.

In June 1999, on their way to stardom and nearly having reached their zenith, their club suffered a crushing setback with their pitch being closed, never to be reopened nor replaced by another.

On September 1999 the team joined the Beijing 10’s where performed well bringing home great memories from a fantastic tour that included the Forbidden City, Great Wall and Summer Palace.

Avid for good sea swimming and sun tan, as well as pleasant sceneries and promenades, the team joined on October 2000 the Bali 10’s but didn’t bring any silverware to their yet spacious trophiy shelf.

Manila 10’s was on the team’s calendar from 1998 to 2008 with a rest on 2007. Apart from the great performance in 1999, Macau brought silver home in 2001 and 2005, respectively Plate Champions and Bowl Champions.

On 17 August 2007 MRC flew to Sichuan Province and played in Chengdu against the recent created team Chengdu Pandas. The game was as usual divided in three parts being the first two won by Macau 32 nil and the third part by the pandas that showed fantastic hospitality skills.

The team also showed presence in many other tournaments in Hong Kong, especially the Kowloon 10’s, Hong Kong Union 7’s, and Valley 15’s. MRC has visited Shekou twice, once for the only Touch Tournament that they have ever played, and the second for the Shekou 10’s in 2008 were they felt the taste of victory.

The team has also been in Guangzhou for several times including for the first game that the local Rams played in 1997. Shanghai in 2002 for a 7’s tournament and in Phuket in 2006 for a 10 aside competition.

International Games

Member of ARFU (Asian Rugby Football Union) since 2002, the MRU was invited to play a development match against the Pakistan in October 2004 on the occasion of the 19th Asian Rugby Tournament in Hong Kong. Macau wan 55 – 0.

Again, on the 22nd May 2005, Macau was invited to play against Cambodia in Hong Kong as a curtain raiser match before Hong Kong played South Korea in qualification for the World Cup 2007. Cambodia was playing its first international game and Macau won 46 – 7.

On 16 June the Indonesia Rugby Football Union

1999 was a major juncture in the team’s history. The MRC boys were performing at their peak with several invitations from Hong Kong Teams inviting Macau players to join 1stnd division competitions. In 1999, Macau, backed up by a few players from Hong Kong, formed a Macau Barbarians team and played against the development team from Hong Kong before the Hong Kong vs. Canada match for the Pacific Rim. The game remained even with Macau triumphing 7 – 5 at the last minute. and 2

Member of ARFU (Asian Rugby Football Union) since 2002, the MRU was invited to play a development match against the Pakistan in October 2004 on the occasion of the 19th Asian Rugby Tournament in Hong Kong. Macau wan 55 – 0.

n hosted the Macau Rugby Union in a Barbarian Match between an Indonesian selection and Macau at the ISCI Rugby Club. This was the first international match (non-Test level) played on Indonesian soil under the IRFU. The match was a tough a forward battle with some great runs by the backs and was played in good spirits with the visitors running out eventual winners 22-10.

Two years the team visited Jakarta to play again a game against Indonesia on the same ground. This time they found a stronger and well organized defensive team and the result was a draw 17 all.

Hong Kong League

Since the 2006/2007 season the Macau Rugby Club plays on the 3rd division of the Hong Kong league. This brought more experience to the team and the results were getting better at the last games of the second year. In nine teams Macau was 6th and won the 3rd division’s B Cup.

This season the team is still positioned at the 3rd division in the same league and plans to be more competitive.

The team is also backed-up by players from Shekou Phytons and Guangzhou Rams forming many times the so called Pearl River Barbarians Rugby Team.

Last Updated on Thursday, 18 June 2009 15:32