Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU) is the governing body for rugby union played in the country.

Founded in 1952, HKRU have been an affiliate of World Rugby (formerly the International Rugby Board) since 1988.

The union organises the world-renowned Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, as well as its own domestic leagues across all age groups, genders and standards of play.

GameDay supports the organisation with its online ecosystem. Recently, HKRU’s youth competitions returned after a COVID-enforced absence, with all players registered with the GameDay platform to ensure they remained safe upon their return to action.

We caught up with HKRU Chief Community Officer Rocky Chow, who oversees all domestic rugby within Hong Kong.

“We went through the process and GameDay was the software of choice, so we went from there,” he said. “I think one of the key reasons is that it combines the membership management component as well as the tournament event component.

“Whoever is playing needs to be registered and make sure that they’re on the team sheets. From a tracking and tracing point of view, we can utilise that.

“If anything happens to any of the teams over the weekend from a COVID point of view, then we can track back and align ourselves with the data that the government has.”

Mr Chow is also confident that the partnership between HKRU and GameDay will be a successful one moving forward.

“Having a robust system is key,” he said. “I’m quite happy that GameDay is willing to work with us in the development side of things to ensure that every club within our community will start using GameDay as their management system of choice.

“One of the key goals is making sure that we provide that transition. If great club players are not playing in school teams, then how do we make sure that we flag that to the schools.

“We want to make sure that both competitions are vibrant moving forward, and everything gets managed through GameDay.”