Updates from Steve Tarrant - Director of Rugby
I hope everyone is enjoying their summer holidays.
The visit from Bobby Charlton went really well and the kids obviously enjoyed meeting him, having checked him out on the internet. He was a real gentleman who was genuinely interested in what we are doing and was very good with the kids. Our thanks to Laureus for arranging.The chairman of Kitchee gave us some tickets for the match and so a dozen of the soccer section got to see the current stars in action as an added bonus.
Back to the oval ball and other good news is that Hang Jai got selected for the HK Youth Team and is now in Nanjing to take part in the Asian Youth Games running till 20 August. We had two other lads go down to the wire for selection, but they unfortunately missed out. Also Ivan, who left us a few years ago and now plays for Tin Siu Wai Pandas and is one of our coaches, has just been selected for the HK ‘A’ team, who are travelling to Singapore to play in a Tri-Nation tournament from 17-23 August. In addition Man Kuen and Fei Nam have been training hard with the HK Development team, but again unfortunately just missed out on selection. Something wrong with all the selectors in my obviously biased opinion! Whilst Breakthrough is all about involving youths at risk in rugby and sport, whatever their level, it is always nice to see a few do really well and I also like to think it shows that the quality of coaching we are giving through our ex-Breakthrough boys is improving all the time. This involvement from the ex-boys is particularly pleasing.
Weather permitting we are still training on a Wednesday night and the summer course is going strong on Friday afternoons. Our last effort to hold a touch tournament with the TM Boys Home was ruined by the weather, so we have re-arranged for this Sunday 18 August from 11.30 to 3.00 at the Police Club. Let us hope the weather does not spoil the day.
There is also a boxing tournament at the Police Club this Saturday, with a couple of Breakthrough boys appearing.