Toby Booth Extends High-Performance Strategic and Technical Consultant Role With HKCR Men’s XVs

Former Head Coach of the Welsh region, the Ospreys, as well as London Irish, and Bath, Toby Booth has extended his role as High-Performance Strategic and Technical Consultant for the Hong Kong China Rugby Men’s XVs programme until at least October 2025.

Hong Kong China Rugby (HKCR) has confirmed that Booth, who has been with the union since February as a consultant via World Rugby, had been supporting the 2025 Asia Rugby Championship campaign, which the men won to qualify for their first-ever Rugby World Cup.

Booth has held several high-profile coaching roles in Europe and worked on numerous consultancy and mentorship projects. He left the Ospreys in December 2024 after spending nearly five years as head coach.

The extension will see him cover the establishment of a full-time programme and preparations for the team’s home matches in the Autumn International Test window, with the fixtures to be confirmed in due course.

Booth said via Hong Kong China Rugby,“My role is two-fold. Firstly, to help with the long-term preparation and the planning into the World Cup, supporting and challenging what we’re doing as a group and helping Andrew (Douglas – HKCR’s Head of Technical Rugby) and Logan (Asplin – newly promoted to the Men’s Head Coach role). And secondly, as we’ve currently got a few absentees [Coach Lewis Evans is currently on paternity leave, with a Scrum Coach also due to be appointed], I’m also helping out on the pitch wherever needed.

He added, “The biggest thing for this group is that they’re hungry to be better and to transition into a full-time model. They bring a lot of energy, and hopefully I can bring the benefit of experience to help them get better.”

Photo Credit – HKCR

Douglas said of having Booth in his coaching group, “We’ve obviously got a young coaching group apart from myself, and we wanted to add Toby’s expertise to that as a fresh voice. While I can lead game plans and models, attack structures and defence structures, Toby has an in-depth technical knowledge that we find invaluable.

It’s been great for me so far, and it’s nice for me to be challenged as well. For example, we’ve had some great discussions about how the game should be shaped and around our game modelling.”

HKCR have said that they are “hopeful that Booth will also be able to continue in the role through to the World Cup in 2027 and Douglas commented, “We know Toby has enjoyed his time here, so we wanted to keep him on to provide a different thought process and a different way of understanding, particularly in our strategising for the next two years.”

Booth himself reflected, “I’ve been very lucky in rugby to have had a lot of variation in my jobs, and it’s nice to be in a situation where you can take on new challenges. It’s a different experience in a different part of the world, with different players, but with the same game, and that’s exciting for me.”

He had added on his personal LinkedIn account, “Really good to contribute further to this journey and support and challenge the group’s journey towards the tournament.”

All of the current HKCR roles can be seen here.

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