Discovery Bay Pirates sail from mini rugby all the way to representing Hong Kong

Long-time DB Pirates Aleena Azarova and Holly Terrebrood were recently selected to represent Hong Kong at the Asia Rugby Emirates U18 7s Championship. The two day tournament took place in Hohhot, (Inner Mongolia) China in mid September with Hong Kong competing against representative teams from China, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, India, Japan, and Uzbekistan.

Aleena and Holly were always standout contributors and team mates in a Pirates team that had plenty of stars. Now that the dust has settled and life is back to normality, I was keen to find out how they both reflected on the experience.

Congratulations to our girls, and the team who took third place, with a win over India in the bronze medal final.

Many thank to Tom Grainger for pulling together this Q&A with Aleena and Holly, to find out more about our youth girls rugby programme, contact: girlsrugby@dbpirates.com.

Q. How old were you when you joined the DB Pirates?

Holly: I joined Pirates in U10 when I was 8.

Aleena: I think i joined at around U7s, so 6 years old.

Q. What is your highlight or favorite memory from mini rugby?

Holly: My favourite experience was definitely the buses to and from tournaments with all my teammates and snacking at our minis tournaments between games.

Aleena: I think one of my favourite memories was full-day Sunday trainings. This was when the girls who played mixed rugby were transitioning into girls rugby which meant that some of us would have 2 trainings per day: morning with the boys team and afternoon with the girls. To me, it just felt really special how we were given 2 different opportunities to train and grow as players, to learn how to play (what it felt like to me at the time) 2 completely different versions of rugby. Moreover, quite often, some of the girls would also show up early to girls rugby trainings which meant that we had time to play before trainings even started and I don’t think ill ever forget how much of a core memory this was.

Q. What was the experience of the Asia 7s U18 trip like?

Holly: The Asia 7s trip was so much fun. We got to talk to different teams from all over and compete at such a high level for HK. I really enjoyed getting to play with girls from other teams as well.

Aleena: The Asia 7s U18 trip was such an incredible opportunity and I am really so grateful for it. I think my one of my favourite memories of the trip was being on the bus to the stadium, this was when everyone was getting taped up and in the zone, there was music through the speakers and the atmosphere was genuinely electrifying. As much as there were highs, we definately experiences some tough opponents such as Japan’s teamwork and China’s physicality in their plays. Although we didn’t get the results we wanted against these teams, everyone put up a great fight and it was actually so awesome playing against these two such professional teams. After the finals during our last dinner, we even got to exchange pins with the Japanese team, as well as take pictures with them and it was actually so fun. Overall, I think I learnt how important it is to break down your games and go through both positives and negatives for next time as this has such a huge impact on your skills as a player.

Q. What are you working towards and hoping for next in rugby?

Holly: I am working to continue representing HK and, hopefully, one day playing for the US team.

Aleena: At the moment, I’m working on just balancing everything on my plate, being rugby, tests and school. However, I’m hoping that soon I’ll be able to successfully put everything that I practiced and trained for on the pitch when the 15s games start which I am very excited for.

Q. Why do you play rugby, and what is important to you about playing?

Holly: I play rugby because I really love it and it is so much fun. One of the most important things to me is the friends I’ve made and all the people I’ve met that have helped and supported me!!