One Sunday afternoon in 1985, a small group of Royal Hong Police Officers, all rugby players of varying abilities, and a member of Hong Kong's legal fraternity, also a rugby player, were ensconced in a much-frequented Kowloon watering hole doing what they did best. Conversation was intellectual and confined, as one would expect, to rugby, women, beer and..well, that was it really.

One of the assembled athletes mentioned in passing how curious it was that rugby clubs in Hong Kong (of which there were 8 at that time) rarely mixed socially, even in the clubhouse bar after a match. In fact, we all knew members of opposing clubs by name and reputation, we would come across them in various drinking establishments around Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia but, at best, might only exchange a curt nod by way of greeting. We would play against them several times a year and yet would rarely, if ever, have shared a beer with them. Their reputations were every bit equal to ours in terms of general misbehaviour and, deep down, we knew each other as generally good blokes, the sort we would happily consort with if we actually knew them.

Another of the wise heads assembled that afternoon raised the point that the only members of opposing clubs who actually did mix socially were those individuals who were talented enough to be selected to play for Hong Kong and go on tour. Clearly, whilst thrown together on tour, sharing rooms and the like, they were able to get to know one another both on and off the pitch. The obvious upshot of this cerebral discussion was that us lesser mortals of Hong Kong's rugby playing fraternity should form a club, invite members of the other clubs who we strongly suspected were good types to join, and go on tour once a year during the off-season.

Remarkably, the next day, some of those assembled actually remembered the conversation and the resolve to form a club. Thus was the Rhinos RFC born. Why did we choose to call ourselves the Rhinos? Simple really. Like our one and two-horned cousins, we saw ourselves as heavy, slow, short-sighted, bad-tempered and perpetually horny.

A date for the tour was set for early June 1986, the destination of Bangkok was chosen to great acclaim, kit in the colours of black and green hoops was ordered from the UK (gold was only added to the club's colours much later and remains the minor colour), a club badge was created and invitations were sent out to those individuals of other clubs who we had identified as being likely to take to the idea of a touring club. The response was modest but encouraging.

The Saturday before the tour 13 of us gathered at the Police Ground in Boundary Street , Kowloon for a training and get to know each other session. It was spitting with rain so training was cancelled and we focused on the getting to know one another. It was very successful. The following week we jetted off to Bangkok . Our hosts were the Bangkok British Club and excellent hosts they proved to be. For the record, we lost the match despite being given two of their players on loan and one of these being the legendary Jimmy Howard who was already in his 50s. The tour was a huge success. So taken with the concept of the Rhinos, some of the BBC guys asked if some of them might be invited to join the tour the following year and so the net for attracting good lads was spread to cover all the clubs we would play in subsequent years.

Word quickly spread around the rugby playing fraternity of Hong Kong that both the tour and the club had been an immense success and the following year, 1987, we had to restrict the touring party to 27, which included some players from the Bangkok British Club. Our destinations this time were to Manila and Jakarta . This was the first and last time we would ever play more than one match on tour.

The strength of the Rhinos as a touring Rugby club was now firmly established. Our ranks swelled with players from Manila, Jakarta, Singapore and other Asian centres of expat rugby.

In due course, often because of the unusual postings of some of our members, we became very much more adventurous in our choice of touring destination. We became determined to open new frontiers in Asia 's known rugby playing world. This attitude took us to places such as Sangatta, the world's largest open-cast coal mine deep in the jungles of Borneo (amazingly, they had one of the finest rugby pitches and clubhouses any of us had seen then or since), the Tea country in Sri Lanka, Vietnam (we were the first club to visit that country since the French had scuttled out in 1954), Cambodia, Kathmandu, Laos and we even had the distinction in 2005 of becoming the first rugby club ever to play a competitive match in Mongolia.

Although we are an Asian-based touring club we have occasionally ventured further afield. In recognition of our 15th anniversary we toured Cape Town in South Africa (and won the match!) on what proved to be a memorable tour. In 2006, for no real reason at all, we toured Cuba (we lost the match!). We will, however, always consider Asia our stamping ground.

Over the years, as one might expect, certain traditions have materialized although it is hard to pinpoint how or why. Our AGM takes place on tour each year. We make every effort to hold it by water be that a lake, a river, a beach, pond or, if we ever tour somewhere like Mali in the depths of the Sahara desert (a possibility), a swimming pool. We also try to incorporate a train trip into the tour wherever possible. We have travelled by train in Cape Town , Cuba , Thailand and, most memorably, an 11 hour trek into the hills of Sri Lanka on a colonial era steam train.

Over the years we have attracted players from most of the major rugby playing nations of the world. Our membership includes players from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, South Africa, Zimbabwe (forgive me if I have left anyone out) but, notably, not from France. There must be a reason for that.

Aside from the annual tour, we gather once a year in Hong Kong for the Rugby 7s tournament and it is at this time that we hold our annual dinner. This is a time for introducing new members, catching up with friends one might not have seen for a year or more and holding up the finest traditions of that most social of all sports, rugby. We enjoy it.

The Rhinos have now been in existence since 1985 and all members take immense pride in their belonging to an organization that brings them collectively enormous enjoyment, camaraderie, humour and a sense of achievement. This club will still be around long after all of our current membership have hung up their boots. We are truly Asia 's premier touring club.