COOMBES Alec

General
HONG KONG, CHINA TO ENGLAND
Born in Hong Kong, China, he moved to England as a child. "My grandma moved to Hong Kong when she was 21, so my father was born there as were myself and all of my siblings. It was a great place to grow up. There is a complete mixture there. For example, one minute you can feel like you are in a concrete jungle and then just 20 minutes away there are amazing beaches and a really chilled out atmosphere. In terms of growing up there, I played lots of different sports and really enjoyed them, but I knew that if I wanted to become an elite athlete, I needed to be training and playing at a higher level more regularly, so I moved over to boarding school in the UK and went to Millfield School [Somerset, England]. I really enjoyed it there and it pushed me on with my rugby. There was some top quality rugby talent there and as we moved up into the first XV, it was clear that we had a good team." (talkingrugbyunion.co.uk, 12 May 2021)

SCOTTISH ROOTS
He has a Scottish family and has represented the nation in rugby sevens at senior level and rugby union [15-a-side] at age-group level. "I always knew of my Scottish roots because my dad is fully Scottish and my grandma is the most Glaswegian sounding person you could ever meet, so to play for the country was an amazing feeling. My grandma is back living in Scotland now while my dad is still in Hong Kong and they were both very proud when I played for the U20s which was nice." (talkingrugbyunion.co.uk, 12 May 2021)