It’s really a couple of weeks early to be talking about the Sevens, yet many tongues around Hong Kong have done nothing but repeat endlessly the same query for the last two months – “Got any spare Sevens tickets?”(And, no I haven’t, but you can win a ticket on page 46.) I have no idea how the HKRFU currently divides up the 40,000 seats/tickets available for the HK stadium. The initiative of encouraging people to join local clubs is a great way of getting folks to think about rugby throughout the year, but why are so many tickets given away/sold overseas when the demand here is increasing each year? Local websites have tickets for sale as high as $5,000 – or is that just good old Hong Kong entrepreneurial spirit shining through? There is probably no surefire way of distributing tickets to all those who want them, but I do miss the old days – nostalgic music rolls off the iPod – of the queue where you spent a freezing January night camped out in Victoria Park with total strangers drinking, chatting and trying to stay warm to get hold of that all important sliver of paper. My first queue was only a few days after I arrived on these fragrant shores in 1993. We joined the line at around 7pm and were within the first hundred or so people. But this was a Sevens queue and style is important. The group of people in front of us had brought their picnic table, tablecloth, candles, wine glasses… the whole nine yards. Talk about civilized queuing! It was cold, fun and the camaraderie was great, just like in the stadium over the weekend. There is nothing like the Sevens, long may it continue – see you there!

sd