HONG KONG — Aeng Khang understood at an early age that playing any sport, much less one as raucous as rugby, would be nearly impossible for girls from her remote village in Laos. As teenagers, many would be expected to marry and leave school to work on the family farm.

“If you went to play sports, they’d say, ‘That’s a girl who wants to be a boy’ or ‘That’s a bad person,’” said Khang, 22, who left school at age 13 to help her parents on their farm so they could finance her older brother’s college education.

Khang took up rugby anyway, as a high school freshman, after the Lao Rugby Federation introduced the game to her home province in the country’s remote northeast. Now she works for the federation and represents her Communist-ruled country by playing in tournaments and exhibition matches around Asia.

“I’m not the sort of person to just sit around waiting for my husband to come home,” Khang, who married two years ago, said during a recent trip to Hong Kong for a round of matches. “And since I play on the national team, I get to travel.”