For the many fans sitting at home, thinking rugby league in 2025 concluded with the final round of the Pacific Championships in early November, they may be oblivious to a somewhat new competition in another corner of the globe. 2025 marks the upgraded revival of the third ever Asian Championships in rugby league, with the IRL not having run one for more than a decade.
For some context, the first two seasons of the Asian Championships ran in 2012 and 2013. Back then the “championships” consisted of one round - 80 minutes - of rugby league, between two nations – the Philippines and Thailand, with the former taking home marginal victories both years.
In 2025, the competition grew to consist of four representative countries: the Philippines, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong SAR.
While the Philippines had the honour of hosting the comp this year and the ultimate champion was Singapore, this article explores the underdog of the league, a region that placed fourth out of four sides in their inaugural season.
The Hong Kong national side is a team that, despite their position, has worked tirelessly as an organisation and as a region, with the sole aim of promoting our game.
As a (kind of) expatriate living in Hong Kong, I have found that among people like me, the NRL is widely popular, yet rugby league is not.
While many avid fans of the NRL go crazy during the Origin period, barrack proudly for their teams and have sturdy ball knowledge, they are often the same people who have no idea that an organisation named “Hong Kong Rugby League” exists right around the corner.
As mentioned in a previous article of mine, the Hong Kong Rugby League exists in a very subtle way.
Their ads are not all over the stations of Admiralty or on the sides of double-decker buses, nor do they promote their organisation much through social media and online.
This makes it extremely difficult for them to advocate not only for themselves as an organisation, but also as a regional representative and as a code.
Yet 2025 marked a turning point for HKRL, as representatives of this league took their first baby steps to make itself known.
In late November, Hong Kong Rugby League entered their first 13-man team into an IRL-approved Asian competition.
While the team may not have come out victorious, a box was checked in the organisation.
Many international rugby league fans may not have known that Hong Kong, a very union-dominated city, played rugby league. Now they know… or sort of.
It's true that the Asian Championships doesn't generate a lot of views, both in Australia and internationally.
I had to watch through a specific live stream site on social media that lagged quite heavily. There was virtually no other place to view it.
The majority of citizens in Hong Kong itself had no idea this competition was happening, and I doubt many elsewhere would.
They went about their day, walking around town, scrolling through social media, and not one mention of either HKRL or the Asian Championships came up. So was Hong Kong's attempt at promoting the game of rugby league a failed operation?
The answer is no. We don't always have to think in absolutes when it comes to topics like this. Sure, many people may still be oblivious to HKRL and the Asian Championships' existence, but was this a positive year for Hong Kong in terms of rugby league?
Absolutely!
In 2014, the year of our establishment, where we were ravaged with recruitment issues, confusion over logistics, and were an extremely weak and overlooked side.
We, as a team, region and sport, have gone from there, and a little over a decade later, we have flourished with multiple men's and women's teams, stable funding, junior grassroots rugby league, and most recently, for the first time ever, a side that is known and talked about in Asian rugby league.
A lot has certainly happened here. Hong Kong's first steps toward rugby league recognition have ultimately paved a way to success.
Looking ahead, there are plenty of opportunities for Hong Kong's rugby league to showcase itself both domestically and to the rest of the world.
NRL's proposed 2027 Global Round will anticipate two NRL/Super League teams to battle it out at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Stadium. Rugby league in Hong Kong may finally be unveiled and appreciated. And HKRL can be a major organisation to be part of it.
Of course, thinking abstractly of things that have not been planned whatsoever, exhibition matches between say, an NRL or Super League side versus the Hong Kong national team in Hong Kong will not only push expatriate viewership through the roof, but promote a sense of patriotism among local Hong Kong citizens.
After all, to people with no rugby league background, it is quite literally Hong Kong VS Australia or Hong Kong VS England at the Olympics. And on an international level, people will watch any sport.
Hong Kong Rugby League is an organisation that are already on a path to success, as evident throughout a rewarding 2025.
This is a side, organisation and region that has so much potential, yet so few following. My advice to HKRL is to get themselves out there!
Engage in more international rugby league events, take advantage of programs they can host, fix their webpage to display their achievements rather than Cooper Cronk's head, and, most importantly, take every opportunity to showcase talent, skill, and sportsmanship to the world.
