Liu Minxia

WHEN Frenchman Alex Roussel’s flight from Hangzhou landed in Shenzhen at around 7 p.m. on a Wednesday night, the clouds thickened and wind came in gusts.

He didn’t hesitate for a minute before jumping into a taxi and heading for his home in Shekou. About 50 minutes later, a kitted-up Roussel went to nearby football pitch, where his Shekou Rugby teammates had started tackling and tussling for the ball.

The rain began pouring down when Roussel entered the fray, but the players seemed indifferent to it. As president of a French engineering company’s Asian branch, Roussel spends most of his time flying to different parts of Asia, but almost never misses a rugby practice or match if he can help it.

Roussel is not the only player who shows up on the pitch even when he has a tight schedule. Stuart Irvine, one of the founders of the team, works for an oil company. He had to move to Tianjin in 2002 for work and moved back to Shenzhen two years ago. “I’ve always been on the team as long as I’m in town,” Stuart said.

Shekou Rugby, which played its first match in 1996 in Hong Kong, has begun growing only recently. For some time, the number of players dwindled to less than 10 as not many people were interested in contact rugby.

About two years ago, the contact rugby section of the team was resurrected thanks to an increasing number of people wanting to play the hard game of unrelenting physical contact. Now around 20 people turn up for practice each time, with half of the players playing touch rugby and another half playing contact rugby, according to Vivian Lin, a Chinese organizer of the team.

The contact rugby section of the team now travels to Guangzhou and Hong Kong to take part in tournaments. In the Kowloon 10s RugbyFest in Hong Kong last month, the contact section of the Shekou rugby team made it to the “Bowl” competition, but were knocked out in the semi-final.

Touch rugby, which is played in a more relaxed manner, is more popular, especially among teenagers and women in Shekou. Oliver Chen, a 13-year-old Chinese South African, is the youngest player in the team.