Nairn athlete has represented both China and Scotland in international touch rugby competitions
What may look like a small or insignificant decision taken at a given moment can, sometimes, change the course of our lives.
For Nairn resident Vega Hui Ouyang, a question asked to a stranger in a bar back in her hometown of Guangzhou – China’s third largest city – after coming across a group of people playing touch rugby, probably had that butterfly effect.
“I always liked team sports,” she said.
“Back at school and at university I played basketball, which is very popular in China. I was still doing skiing, rock climbing and playing badminton, but after university, it felt more difficult to find a team sport to join.
“I was passing a stadium and saw a group of men and women playing touch rugby together, and I thought that looked like something I wanted to do.
“Some time after I saw a guy in a bar wearing a Guangzhou Rams rugby top – so I asked him how I could get involved. That’s how it all started.”
It was 2003. Fast forward to today, Vega has represented China in two World Cups, competed twice in the European championship and in the European seniors cup – joining the Scottish selection this year – and the touch rugby pitch is also where she met her husband, Stuart, who moved to Guangzhou from Scotland to work with EF.
“My first training sessions were all about learning the rules,” she said.
“Passing the ball backwards, retreating when you are touched rather than going forward…it was quite different from sports I practised before.”
However, it wasn’t until 2018 that she started playing competitive touch rugby (whose rules and structure are very different from union and “social” touch rugby), after a few years playing full contact rugby, as well as having two children, Alastair and Brodie.
“It's very, very different from social touch rugby,” she explained.
“It's more structured, and there are a lot of drills you need to learn.”
Six players on half of a standard rugby pitch, two 20-minute halves with a 5-minute half-time break, and a 7-metre retreat for the whole team each time a player is touched. It’s a high-paced, fast game. Two
“You have different positions called the middle, who sit in the centre, two links and the wings outside,” Vega explains.
The discipline had been off her radar also as it wasn’t until 2015 that China entered a national team at the World Cup, although Vega had played competitive matches with the Guangzhou Rams in Shanghai and Hong Kong tournaments.
Then, in 2018, Vega joined the sessions run by a touch rugby coach visiting from Oceania.
In 2019, she was selected to represent China at the World Cup in Malaysia, where she was also named vice-captain of the women's team, playing her first World Cup in her early 40s.
“I was really pleased – particularly as I was one of the older players, when most of the team is made up of uni students,” she said.
“Although older doesn’t mean more experienced, a lot of the girls had started earlier than I did.”
A few months after this peak moment, she was on a family trip to the Highlands, visiting Stuart’s family in Nairn. Little did they know that lockdown was looming, and that they would be finding themselves stuck in Scotland. And, for various reasons, in Scotland, they decided to remain.
Although the thought of returning to China one day remains, Vega and her family have made Nairn their home. But the craving for competitive rugby continued – and an opportunity came with the European Touch Championships in France in 2023.
“I was looking for opportunities to play for Scotland,” she said.
“While I was here, the rules to play for a specific country changed, and you could go for trial after two years living in a country – down from three previously.
“I wasn’t selected for Scotland then – my husband did, he played for the Scotland over 40 team – but there was a team made up of players from different countries, called Eurostars, and I was selected. I was the only one from Scotland.”
Later that year, spending three months back in Guangzhou, she took the opportunity to join the training camps for the World Cup to be held in Nottingham the next summer. She was selected to represent China a second time – this time playing in the senior mixed category.
“It was quite exciting when they announced the team. As I was about to open the list with the names selected, I remember feeling quite nervous; my heart was thumping.”
It was not to be a smooth ride for her as, only a few weeks away from the World Cup, she got injured during a summer tournament, partially tearing her ACL.
“I was bursting into tears on the pitch, because I thought I would miss the Touch World Cup because of it,” she recalled.
However, abundant strapping and physio support, as well as a switch of position to the wings, meant that she could play in the sport’s major event – playing all seven matches and scoring a try against Fiji – helping secure a win – and two against Hong Kong, against which they lost at extra time.
This year brought a new tournament on the scene, the European Seniors Touch Cup in Stirling, and this time, she was selected to play for Scotland’s Women’s 40 team. This time, it was Stuart’s moment to compete as part of the Euro Select team.
Sport is an ever-present element in Vega’s life. Working as a finance and administration officer for Camanachd, she is also involved in developing sports in the Nairn community, volunteering as a coach with the youth rugby team Nairn Thunderbolts, and running the Nairn Touch Rugby group, which regularly meets to play at the Links on Monday evenings.
For Vega, touch rugby is truly a family business.
“When our kids were young, when we played, we would always take them along, and they grew up watching us play,” she said.
Her eldest, Alastair (13), represented China in the Atlantic Youth Touch Cup in Ireland this summer – only two weeks before Vega and Stuart’s participation in the Senior Euros.”
Her youngest, Brodie (11), recently signed with Nairn County’s Academy U12 as a goalkeeper, but has also expressed an interest in potentially trialling for Scotland or China’s touch teams in the future.
Now, her eyes are set on the coming major competitions – the Euros in France in 2026 and the next World Cup in 2028.
“I'm quite lucky I can play for China and Scotland, and hopefully I will still be playing in 2028,” she said.
“But I think I’ll have to make a choice on which side I'm going for!”