St Albans Centurions welcomed international visitors on a fact-finding mission from the newly-founded Hong Kong Rugby League last Thursday.

Ray Meli, the secretary of the HKRL, along with the chairman, was on a whistle-stop tour of the UK to see the set up and administration of the sport. They attended the three-match England-Australia World Club Championships games and gave speeches to the rugby league group in the Houses of Parliament.

Meli, together with a group of like minded rugby league enthusiasts, set up the HKRL to join the likes of Thailand, Japan and the Philippines to promote the growth and interest of rugby league.

“The HKRL board will be working hard to establish rugby league in Hong Kong by organising a wide ranging fixture list which will include international matches with the Hong Kong Thunder as well as local representative, domestic, junior, school and touch football,” he said.

“We are very excited as a group about giving the sport a presence in Hong Kong. We have put together a board of talented and most importantly enthusiastic people who can push the sport forward in Hong Kong.

“Our hopes for the future are high with regards to getting both adults and juniors playing rugby league in and for this exciting country. Looking further down the road we can see Hong Kong, with it’s geographical positioning, being a venue of great interest to the global community.”

The clubs exchanged jerseys and talked about a possible link in the future.