Rocky Chow Executive Director of Rugby For Good: “We Use Sport As A Vehicle”

We have known Rugby For Good and its Executive Director, Rocky Chow, for many years, and after catching up at the Cathay HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, we thought we were long overdue to hear about what they have been doing, the programs and partners they have, and how important a mega event like the Sevens is.

Feature Credit Photo – Rugby For Good Executive Director – Rocky Chow 

Rocky Chow – Executive Director of Rugby For Good

Rocky told Rugby Asia 247, “I’ve been straddling this role for a good five or six years, and in the last 12 months, I’ve had the opportunity to actually look after this 100%, so I’m now the Executive Director of Rugby For Good.

I look after literally everything from top to bottom, and we’ve got a team of 14 people, including myself and full-time staff, looking after 12 long-term projects for major events.

We work with both schools and NGOs, and it’s important to know that Rugby for Good is a little bit different to the traditional NSA (National Sports Association) approach. 

We use sport as a vehicle. We look at ourselves as more of an alternative education platform where we use sport as a vehicle to deliver social development, build resilience and provide life skills for young people in Hong Kong, our target audience.

We cater for primary and secondary schools, so from five years old until 17 years old. We do cater outside of that as we look after parents with parent engagement, where we work with adults. We work with university students, too, but the youth audience is the key focus in Rugby For Good.”

Photo Credit – Rugby For Good – Rocky Chow (centre)

Rocky gave us a broad stroke of some of the work they do, and how rugby is a part of that but not exclusively so.

“We have two themes, and our programs sit within either a social inclusion objective, where we bring kids from different backgrounds & different demographics together. And the other track is a fairly well-known one focusing on mental health.

We look at mental health and well-being, looking at prevention, seeking help, understanding how to build resilience, and how to build a good support network to really help shape themselves, and to protect themselves and prepare themselves for the future. 

That’s a very high-level nutshell of what we do.

If you look at a traditional NSA triangle, where you have mass participation down at the bottom, and then you sort of push people to the top, which is the pinnacle of where you get the performance end of the game. I would say that we are on the outskirts of that bottom, where we use sport to engage and provide education and development. 

Hopefully, with the work that we do, the kids and the people that we work with get to enjoy and learn through sport. They feel they get a lot out of sport, and from playing sport. Obviously, rugby is a key sport, but it doesn’t end there either.”

Rugby For Good –  Independence & Partnerships

We asked him to explain if Rugby For Good works independently from the Hong Kong China Rugby Union, and to expand on who they collaborate with. 

At the start of March 2023, the HKRUCF (Hong Kong Rugby Union Community Foundation) rebranded to Rugby for Good. 

“That’s a good question. We were founded by the HKCR union 13 years ago. It was in 2013 that we were founded by Robbie McRobbie, the former CEO of Hong Kong China rugby. 

We are the first NSA in Hong Kong to have a Section 88, which is the official charity status in Hong Kong. (Section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance) is the legal provision that grants tax-exempt status to charitable institutions and trusts of a public character in Hong Kong.

We are an independent organisation with a close partnership with HKCR, and we are the official charity partner (they signed an MoU in 2025). It is a little bit different to Laureus.

Laureus is the charity of the Cathay HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, whereas we are the official charity and social impact partner of Hong Kong China rugby. 

We have a separate board of directors. We run independently, but we have very, very close connections, because rugby is a sport that we use a lot, and so we have really close connections there.”

Photo Credit – Rugby For Good

What is ‘social impact’, and what are you trying to do? We know the ChildFund Rugby programme well, and we imagine you also do some crossover work with them?

“Absolutely. We work very closely with Chris Mastaglio and Megan Knight (both Co-Directors) at ChildFund Rugby. A lot of our curriculum, the backbone of that, came from them, especially on the social inclusion side. 

One of our backbone projects that’s funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club is called Jockey Club Rugby United, where we use rugby as a sport to bring students from different backgrounds together. A lot of that work came from ChildFund Rugby. A lot of our monitoring, evaluation, and learning work from that project comes from them, too. So we work very closely with them, and obviously, they do a ton of capacity building, and we do very similar work. It’s great that we get to share learnings. 

Hong Kong China Rugby is a little bit different, in that they demand a bit more than just the social impact stuff –  they want the sport to be beneficial as well. So we do things a bit differently, but the backbone of that’s the same.”

Rugby For Good has partnerships with the likes of Cathay Pacific and Laureus, and over the course of the HK7s week, hosted several sessions to highlight their work. The Cathay GET, SET, MOVE Carnival in 2026 is also something they have highlighted with Cathay in 2026 as they celebrate a milestone year.

Cathay Pacific & Rugby For Good

Photo Credit – Rugby For Good – Get Set Move program with Cathay Pacific

“Cathay has been supporting rugby for many, many years with Hong Kong China Rugby and with the Sevens event and the Hong Kong representative teams. They have supported one of our school organisation programs in Hong Kong called Cathay x Po Leung Kuk Tackling Life for a number of years, which sits within the Hong Kong, China rugby. 

The Get Set Move initiative, or the Get Set Move program, is something that the new Head of Community Engagement for Cathay Pacific, Mark Fancy, and I have been working on. What we wanted to bring into this project is the four hours of mental health charter that the Hong Kong Education Bureau has ingrained into the school system. 

We want to use sport to deliver that in the secondary school setting, as well as using the Cathay brand to really broadcast the benefits of using sport as a platform to bring social change within the school system. It’s an extension of Cathay supporting rugby, but it’s a first for us as Rugby For Good, working with Cathay officially. Hopefully, it’s the start of a long-term partnership between us. 

We have a long-term vision, and I think we need to prove that. We need to prove that we do a good job and we deliver the outcomes that we set out to do within the schools that we are committed to this year. 

Obviously, numbers are not the only thing that matters, but we must have a wide reach. So we are in 127 local schools in Hong Kong (both primary and secondary schools), but we’re not in international schools. We annually engage with over 30,000 people with our programs. We have 12 long-term projects that span 12 weeks and above, and most of those projects go on for multiple years, so they are meaningful projects.

Photo Credit – Cathay Celebrates with Rugby For Good in Hong Kong

Laureus & & Rugby For Good

Laureus is another international NGO partner that Rugby For Good works with very closely. Rocky told us they have supported them since they were evolving from the foundation up until Rugby For Good formed. 

“They’ve supported us with programs like the Deaf Rugby Program and the Rugby Spirit Program. When some of our corporate partners decided to step away. Laureus stepped in. So they’ve been absolutely amazing. 

There is a project where we support rugby for children with ADHD in a family. It’s also for the parents who have kids with ADHD. So they’ve helped us work with University of Hong Kong, and Chinese University of Hong Kong, to build a weekend program that caters for about 50 families a year and teaches them and the kids how to manage their emotions, teach kids how to manage their time, give them tools to to be more disciplined, and also give tools to the parents on how they should communicate and interact with their children. They have also seen their children thrive in the sports field.

Our project has provided great data – with 93% of families, we are seeing a lot of improvements with their children, the dads are a lot more involved with their children’s lives throughout the program and the integration into rugby clubs afterwards. So it has proven to be very successful. 

Laureus has supported this project for a couple of years, and a local foundation is now taking this on for three years. We’ve expanded that to include teachers’ training for local schools and to upskill the teachers with work experience so that when they go into schools, they will have hands-on experience of how to deal with kids with ADHD.” 

Photo Credit – Rugby For Good – ADHD program

Rocky explained, “We were nominated recently for the Laureus Sports Award, and we were one of the six globally to be nominated.

I think it gives recognition of all the hard work the team’s doing. I think what’s more important is that sport for development, the work that we do, using sport as a platform, rather than doing the traditional sport development, which always gets mixed up and misunderstood. 

Having accolades like that and having this global recognition provides more evidence and more proof that what we do – it’s different.

What we do is good for the community, and I think there is a place for both the sport development pathway and sport for development within each of the jurisdictions that we all work in.”

The Impact of the Cathay HSBC Hong Kong Sevens Week

A lot was going on this year at the Hong Kong 7s week, but we asked Rocky to pick out a couple of standout events that stuck with him, in terms of how he can see the impacts of what Rugby For Good is doing at such an important global rugby event. 

“We spent a good month this year working on the events for the Hong Kong 7s week, and we had a better runway into the events. We were less busy during the three days of rugby as we spent more time supporting Hong Kong China Rugby in some of the work they do. 

What stood out is the Jockey Club Sevens Community project that we’ve been working with for the last five years. We use the global event of the HK sevens – a real mega event in Hong Kong – as a bit of a platform to really engage the wider community in Hong Kong. It is not just the rugby community. 

That resonates a lot since COVID, where we really needed the local people to get behind us when we brought the Sevens back, and there wasn’t a lot of international travel. What needs to be done is we need to explain what that means for the local community, and what their part is that they have within that space. 

Impact of the Cathay HSBC Hong Kong Sevens Week – Rugby For Good

We had a multi-sports environment at a local shopping mall. We have a lot of elite athletes who share their experiences, and we always have a theme.

This year, it was talking about support networks and also about the different athletes within their sports, the importance of a mega event for them and how important it is to have a good support network around them.

That resonates back to young kids; it could be getting into a school team. It could be getting to a district team. So, how do we connect a mega event and use a mega event to really connect the wider community? 

We brought 4,500 kids and families into the Kai Tak Stadium, and we had 6,000 school kids on the Friday school experience program, where we took them in, explained to them how to watch rugby, and walked them around the stadium.

HSBC has been a great supporter as well. The HSBC Try Rugby Program started four years ago, and we put together a modified version of touch rugby (4vs4) and took that into a local shopping mall. 

We played a two-day tournament among these primary school kids, which got a lot of visibility among the public. We had HKCR rep players play games with them, showcase and give them a bit of podium spotlight.”

Photo Credit – HSBC Try Rugby Program – Rugby For Good

We also hosted the Sport and Sustainability Summit, and this year, we were able to put on two half days with very distinct themes.

Day one was very focused on environmental sustainability, especially for the Sevens event, putting together a bit of an action plan of how to have it, how to run a sustainable event, using the HK Sevens as a bit of a pilot. We shared that with Kai Tak, and we can test some of these initiatives in the coming 12-18 months, heading into the next Sevens. 

On the second day, we talked about social impact, where we brought in some international references. We brought in the likes of ChildFund Rugby & Laureus, talking about some of the important social impact frameworks. We brought founders in to talk about how they view providing support, sponsorship and donations. And we looked at the practitioners’ view as well. 

We put together an action plan that Rugby For Good can implement, and we’re looking to take on two or three initiatives in the next 12 months. We’re looking to report back at next year’s Sport & Sustainability Summit. 

I think it’s a great example of how we leverage a massive event of the Hong Kong Sevens within the city.”

After we spoke, Rugby For Good released some stats about the first half of 2026 in their Q2 “Beyond the Try Line” newsletter:

• 15,000+ community members reached
• Launched Cathay Get, Set, Move with Olympian Siobhán Haughey
• Hosted our first-ever Gala Dinner at the Fullerton Ballroom
• Raised HK$120,000 at the Move For Good Corporate Challenge
• Trained 40+ coaches & facilitators

Photo Credit – Rugby For Good – Sport & Sustainability Summit

What is SEL, and how does Rugby For Good use it?

Rugby for Good is the only sports charity in Hong Kong that currently uses SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) as the foundation of its programming.

There’s a lot of good data in the documentation they provide, but we asked Rocky to give a broad idea of how it’s used and how he hopes it can be used moving forward.

“Looking at local schools in Hong Kong, because it’s very academically focused. A lot of time is spent on academic performance and performance from a sports perspective. But they forget you need to develop internally before you actually develop externally. 

So to get the maximum performance out of each individual, what SEL talks about is providing self-awareness, building capacity, self-management, looking at decision-making, and looking at leadership. It is about building resilience and building life skills for kids, if you want to put things into layman’s terms. 

What we do is still using sport as a platform, and with that, a social-emotional learning component woven into the bedrock of what we provide. A third pillar that I haven’t quite mentioned is what we call capacity building. Applying what the kids have learned, so they can use that outside of what they’ve done in the 90 minutes of sports in everyday life. 

The emotional learning capabilities would allow the kids to fully utilise things they learn at school, things they learn through sport, and they can connect that, hopefully, with better self-development and become better individuals.” 

Photo Credit – Rugby For Good – SEL – Buddy Rugby program

To harness that potential, or the power of sports and education, is a common theme we’ve heard and seen across Asia, because often sports might be seen as a barrier, especially to some parents. 

They might say, “Why are my kids involved in this? And where does it lead to? Where can they go with this?” instead of seeing some of the soft skills and the benefits that playing sports offers kids.

“Absolutely. And I think, although the government’s doing a lot of work into bringing sports into the system, there’s still only X number of hours that the kids have in a day. 

So how do we best utilise the time that they have, and how do we best utilise the engagement that we can provide them? We can actually do social development, social-emotional development. Why don’t we do it together on a platform using sport so they have their mental well-being supported, and they get their physical well-being reinforced as well?”

What Does The Short-Term Future Look Like for Rugby For Good?

We asked Rocky where he sees things heading over the next 18 months. And why we used that timeframe is because a lot is happening in terms of rugby in Hong Kong China Rugby over that period, with the Men’s XV going to their first World Cup in Australia and WXV Global Challenger being hosted in Hong Kong in September 2026, while the Asian Game Sevens takes place in Japan later in the year. Where are the biggest opportunities?

“I think it’s first of all, the advocacy piece that we can provide, not just for rugby, but for using sport as a platform in general; hopefully we can share some of the learnings with the other NSA’s and also some of the other NGOs.

From a rugby point of view, how can we support Hong Kong China rugby and build that legacy? Putting together a campaign for the Rugby World Cups is very important for both the men and women.

You mentioned those three big tournaments, how do we support them effectively in developing a legacy that the local community can connect with, and it provides that longer term engagement so they can see rugby in line, along with the other main sports, like football, basketball and volleyball.

I think it’s how we can support Hong Kong China Rugby in doing that more effectively and really preaching the message that sport has a lot more to give than just the sport itself.”

Photo Credit – Rugby For Good – Gala Dinner 2026

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