China News Service, Fuzhou, November 13 (Reporter Yan Xu) As one of the series of activities of the 9th Strait Youth Festival, the 6th Cross-Strait Youth Rugby Exchange Tournament was held on the 13th at the Nanjiang Beach in Fuzhou, which is located by the Min River. The stadium opens.
The picture shows the Fuzhou Tigers (red) and the cross-strait collision joint team in the adult collision competition.
Photo by Zhang Bin
There are 25 teams invited to participate, including 11 adult teams, including 2 cross-strait joint teams, and 14 youth teams.
According to the organizer, the scale of this tournament is the largest ever, especially the number of youth teams has increased significantly.
Jimei University football team coach Ye Zhaoxiang is from Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
In 2017, he was studying for a graduate student in Fuzhou to participate in the cross-strait youth rugby exchange game.
Seeing that Fujian's enthusiasm and hobby for rugby continues to increase, he secretly determined to come to the mainland to teach rugby after graduation.
The picture shows the Spartan Warriors and the Cross-Strait Collision Joint Team (red) in an adult collision competition.
Photo by Zhang Bin
"In 2019, I came to Jimei University as I wish to teach." Ye Zhaoxiang said that in recent years, the number of mainland universities participating in rugby has been increasing, and the importance and support of universities have also been increasing.
In this event, Ye Zhaoxiang was invited to join the Cross-Strait Collision Company and will compete with the Fuzhou Tigers and the Spartan Warriors on the same field.
Lin Zhengyi, a young Taiwanese who works in Xiamen, is an amateur golfer who participated in this tournament for the first time as a member of the Xiamen Typhoon team.
"At present, rugby is still a niche sport on the mainland, but it is slowly being promoted. In the past few years, I have also met many friends from both sides of the strait through rugby," he said.
The picture shows the Fuzhou University Team vs. Fuzhou Railway Tornado 2 in an adult touch game.
Photo by Zhang Bin
Since 2015, the Fujian Rugby Association and the Fuzhou Tiger Rugby Club have played their geographical advantages and have held five consecutive Straits Youth Rugby Exchange Games.
The event attracted nearly 2,000 youths from both sides of the strait, including more than 200 players from Taiwan’s universities and youth groups, as well as rugby enthusiasts from Fuzhou, Xiamen, Shanghai, Hangzhou and other mainland regions.
The competition included various competition forms such as adult bumping, adult touch, middle school touch, and elementary school touch.
Wu Lusheng, president of the Fujian Rugby Association, said that the tournament will also invite Taiwanese youths to enter the campus for rugby promotion activities to learn from Taiwan’s rugby teaching experience.
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