The New Zealand Consulate hosted it’s annual Rugby Sevens Reception to promote and raise awareness of all things Kiwi, including meats, cheese, wines, juices, superb scenery, wonderful hospitality and of course talented sportswomen and sportsmen.
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Interest in women’s rugby has surged since the Olympic games so it’s appropriate that as it turns Twenty, the Hong Kong Women’s Rugby Sevens finally gets the recognition the hard working women behind the tournament deserve and becomes a World Series Qualifier.
Why Hong Kong hasn’t been a core tournament on the Women’s World Sevens Series since the outset has been a question no one could/would answer – probably because the men running the HKRU, one of the richest rugby unions in the world, couldn’t see past their massive cash and status generating behemoth of a men’s tournament to even acknowledge that women’s rugby existed and should be funded…
And while this weekend is about Sevens, it needs to be repeated and shouted from our thousands of skyscrapers that the Hong Kong women’s rugby team are going to the World Cup in Ireland later this year. The first and only Hong Kong team ever qualify for a World Cup!!! It’s a massive achievement, and many of the players will be playing in the Women’s Sevens over the next two days at So Kon Po. So take the time, to attend and watch and give them your support. They are modern day heroines!
Twelve teams from the six World Rugby regions will take part in the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series Qualifier at So Kon Po down the road from the Hong Kong Stadium with winner promoted to the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in 2017/18.
The participating teams are South Africa and Kenya (Africa), Jamaica (Americas North), Argentina and Colombia (Americas South), Belgium, Italy and The Netherlands (Europe), Papua New Guinea (Oceania) Japan, China and hosts Hong Kong (Asia).
Three of the participants played in the Rio 2016 Olympics: Kenya, Colombia and Japan Belgium, Colombia, Italy and Jamaica are on debut in Hong Kong, bringing the total number of nations to have participated at the HKWR7s to 41 over the past two decades.
Hong Kong coach Anna Richards is excited at the prospect of playing in the Qualifier. “The quality of the teams is great and the opportunity to contest the qualifier at home is all that you could ask for as a coach. It’s added pressure, of course, but also added excitement.”
“Hong Kong is iconic for Sevens, so hosting the women’s qualifier here is great for the development of the game. The more Women’s events that can be played alongside the men’s tournaments the better,” Richards added.
For the first time, and hopefully not the last, the Cup Semi-finals will be played at HK Stadium. Hong Kong has made the semi-finals for the last two years but fell at the final hurdle and missed out on playing in-front of 40,000 home town fans.
Richards has ensured that the squad have had a more active build-up this year with the squad training with the New Zealand Development squad. “New Zealand was really good for us. We wanted to play against some bigger and more physical opposition. And we footed it really well. They had a lot of quality players in the team in New Zealand, including four contracted players and one Olympian, so it was a really good build-up.”
“We were right in there in those matches and I think the girls gained a lot of confidence. If we can play like that, then I would give us a good chance to make a Semi Final,” Richards said. “To advance we will need to finish in the top two in our pool, but we have had a good build-up and the girls are very focused and enter the tournament with a lot of confidence.”
American ‘harmonizers’ Fifth Harmony played their first Hong Kong concert to an enthusiastic crowd at AsiaWorld Expo on the 31 March.
The set list for the gig was:
That’s My Girl, Miss Movin’ On, Sledgehammer, Reflection, This Is How We Roll, Scared of Happy, I Lied, Write On Me, No Way, We Know, Dope, Squeeze, Big Bad Wolf, BO$$, Not That Kind of Girl, All In My Head (Flex), Brave Honest, Beautiful, Gonna Get Better, Worth It, Work From Home.
Division 2 As the season runs down to its conclusion, there are only a handful of fixtures remaining in the Saturday Championship Division 2. Matches scheduled at Mission Road over the past couple of weeks have been moved to PKVR Park.
SCC Lancers v HKU
There was only one match played on Saturday at PKVR Park where SCC Lancers beat HKU by six wickets in a tight finish.
HKU batted first after winning the toss and they made 9/178 from their 35 overs. The bulk of their runs were scored in a fourth wicket partnership of 88 runs between Ankit Suri who hit 42 and Chamila Panduwawala who top scored with 49. Best of the HKU bowlers was Rahul Tonapi who claimed 3/41 from seven overs.
The SCC Lancers reply got away to a good start with the openers putting on 39 runs for the first wicket however, three quick strikes by the HKU bowlers set SCC Lancers back to 3/57. A 94-run fourth wicket partnership between Uday Shetty (58) and Asif Ismail (56*) set up the win for SCC Lancers, who got over the line with eight balls to spare. At PKVR Park: HKUCC 9/178 from 35 overs lost to SCC Lancers 4/181 from 33.4 overs by six wickets.
Amateur sleuths, private investigators and champagne swilling guests joined the Red Sole Republic Police Department at Christian Louboutin in Central to attempt to solve the mystery of who killed Amazoula?
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The trial of the Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU) and it’s Chairman Pieter Schats on Criminal Defamation reached the plea stage at Eastern Magistrates Court on 22 April, 2016 with the charges in the private prosecution read out to the defendants:
The charges read out were:
Information has been laid THAT YOU, Hong Kong Rugby Union a limited company registered in Hong Kong did on the 25 September, 2015 in Hong Kong deliberately and maliciously published, in the form of the article annexed here, defamatory libel knowing it to be false and factually inaccurate in breach of Section 5 of the Defamation Ordinance, Cap 21 of the Laws of Hong Kong.
The article in the form of a letter written by the Chairman of the Hong Kong Rugby Union on the letterhead of the HK Rugby Union (HKRU) was published to “All of our friends at World and Asia Rugby, Hong Kong Rugby Union Past Chairmen and Vice Presidents, Board of Directors, Hong Kong Rugby Club Chairmen and the Hong Kong Rugby and Sporting Community. It was also published on the HKRU’s website www.hkrugby.com under the title “Note from HKRU Chairman Pieter Schats.”
On or before the 23 September, 2015 the Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU) – the organisation responsible for the running and management of the sport of Rugby Union in Hong Kong – did approve and implement a new rule imposing ethnic Chinese player quotas on teams playing rugby in Hong Kong.
The HKRU on the 23 September, 2015 published on it’s website and caused to be published in the SCMP a news release entitled “Significant changes made to Hong Kong Rugby Union Domestic League structure”. Part of the text of that news release was: The modified Championship Club structure sees that league now highly focused on serving as an entry point and breeding ground for Chinese players, with all teams required to include a minimum of 14 ethnic Chinese players in each match day squad.”
Simon Durrant, the editor and publisher of bc magazine for 21 years wrote an article about the introduction of active racial discrimination, via ethnic quotas, into HK Rugby. According to Chapter 602 The Racial Discrimination Ordinance this is illegal in Hong Kong. The article entitled Active Racial Discrimination in HK Men’s Rugby was published on www.bcmagazine.net on the 24 September, 2015.
The HKRU letter dated 25 September, 2015 in full and specifically but not limited to paragraphs 3,4,5 is defamatory, disparaging and factually untrue. It besmirches and stains the integrity and reputation of Simon Durrant as a journalist and the factual accuracy of his article and in doing so the reputation and integrity of bc magazine – where Simon Durrant often recognised in public as ‘Mr bc’ has been the Owner, Publisher and Editor of bc magazine for over 21 years. Contrary to Section 5 of the Defamation Ordinance, Chapter 21
The HKRU representative Mr Schats pleaded not guilty
Information has been laid THAT YOU, Pieter Lodewijk Schats as Chairman of the Hong Kong Rugby Union on the 25 September, 2015 in Hong Kong deliberately and maliciously published, in the form of the article annexed here, defamatory libel knowing it to be false and factually inaccurate in breach of Section 5 of the Defamation Ordinance, Cap 21 of the Laws of Hong Kong.
The article is in the form of a letter written by Pieter Schats, Chairman of the Hong Kong Rugby Union on the letterhead of the HK Rugby Union was published to “All of our friends at World and Asia Rugby, Hong Kong Rugby Union Past Chairmen and Vice Presidents, Board of Directors, Hong Kong Rugby Club Chairmen and the Hong Kong Rugby and Sporting Community. It was also published on the HKRU’s website www.hkrugby.com under the title “Note from HKRU Chairman Pieter Schats.”
On or before the 23 September, 2015 the Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU) – the organisation responsible for the running and management of the sport of Rugby Union in Hong Kong – did approve and implement a new rule imposing ethnic Chinese player quotas on teams playing rugby in Hong Kong.
The HKRU on the 23 September, 2015 published on it’s website and caused to be published in the SCMP a news release entitled “Significant changes made to Hong Kong Rugby Union Domestic League structure”. Part of the text of that news release was: The modified Championship Club structure sees that league now highly focused on serving as an entry point and breeding ground for Chinese players, with all teams required to include a minimum of 14 ethnic Chinese players in each match day squad.”
Simon Durrant, the editor and publisher of bc magazine for 21 years wrote an article about the introduction of active racial discrimination, via ethnic quotas, into HK Rugby. According to Chapter 602 The Racial Discrimination Ordinance this is illegal in Hong Kong. The article entitled Active Racial Discrimination in HK Men’s Rugby was published on www.bcmagazine.net on the 24 September, 2015.
Pieter Schats letter dated 25 September, 2015 in full and specifically but not limited to paragraphs 3,4,5 is defamatory, disparaging and factually untrue. It besmirches and stains the integrity and reputation of Simon Durrant as a journalist and the factual accuracy of his article and in doing so the reputation and integrity of bc magazine – where Simon Durrant often recognised in public as ‘Mr bc’ has been the Owner, Publisher and Editor of bc magazine for over 21 years. Contrary to Section 5 of the Defamation Ordinance, Chapter 21
Mr Pieter Lodewijk Schats pleaded not guilty.
SCMP article “Hong Kong rugby to revamp domestic leagues in effort to strengthen national team” with ethnic quota rule introduction highlighted.
The cases centre around the Hong Kong Rugby Union’s introduction of Ethnic Quotas to local rugby in September 2015 – as announced by the HKRU in a 23 September news release on their website and also published in the SCMP (linked here) on the 22 and 23 September.
The HKRU website version (linked here) was quickly amended after Simon Durrant’s article (linked here) that ethnic quotas and racial discrimination are illegal in Hong Kong was published on the 24 September.
A day later on the 25 September Mr Schats published a note to the global rugby community (linked here) which according to Mr Durrant is defamatory and factually inaccurate.
The four teams that will compete in the inaugural Hong Kong T20 Blitz have been revealed following a successful auctioning off of the franchises.
Rude Bar Island Warriors, Kowloon Cantons, Hung Hom JD Jaguars and Lantau GII Galaxy Riders were the names chosen by their respective owners to compete in the tournament run by the Hong Kong Cricket Association over the 28th and 29th of May.
The four teams will play each other once with the final to be held on the Sunday afternoon on the 29th of May.
The Island Warriors are run by the owners of a sports bar (Rude Bar Stock Exchange) in Wyndham St and placed the top bid in the silent auction that will earn the franchise first pick in the player draft.
“The format of cricket is tried and tested which always attracts a lot of people,” Warriors marketing manager Amanda Folcarelli said. “By starting this in Hong Kong it will put the region a step closer to the global cricket world and help the development of its young players. We as a business will also gain lots of untapped clients from the HK cricket fraternity which is good for us too.”
The Kowloon Cantons are made up of a syndicate of 10 owners and will wear the colour blue with their slogan “Cricket, Passion, Faith”. The Cantons will have a derby match with neighbours the Hung Hom JD Jaguars, who are owned by Jedi Dia a company with close family ties to Hong Kong national team player Kinchit Shah. The Jaguars will play in Pink and Black. And the fourth team will be the Lantau GII Galaxy Riders, who are owned by Indian businessman Suresh Khandewal. The team will play in Black and white.
Hong Kong Cricket Association Marketing and Commercial Director Max Abbott said the announcement of the teams was an exciting step for event organisers. “Now that we have the names, the tournament is really starting to take shape and we can start to promote these franchises. It will be up to the teams to build their fan base now and us as an Association to get Hong Kong excited about this tournament.” Abbott continued “It’s looking likely we will have some big name signings to announce as overseas players, which will prove that we want this to be a high quality cricket tournament. Our aim is to sell the ground out at Tin Kwong Rd Recreation ground for both days when tickets go on sale next month.”
The draft will be held on April 28, which include players being selected from the Hong Kong squad and the domestic Premier League.
T20 Blitz Date: 28-29 May, 2016 Venue: Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground Tickets: tbc
