Category: feature

Hong Kong Women’s Sevens 2015 @ Kings Park – 26 March, 2015

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A fantastic day’s rugby at Kings Park – Hong Kong Women’s Seven’s Day 1

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Hong Kong Women’s Sevens 2015 – Day 1 Results

Tournament Results - Day One Results 2015

A superb unbeaten run from Hong Kong, including a 31-14 victory over Asian champions China, pushed the hosts into a commanding position at the end of the opening day of the Hong Kong Women’s Sevens 2015.

Hong Kong defeated Asian Games Gold medalists China, who also feature on the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series, in the final match of the day to set up an enticing Cup quarterfinal clash against Samoa. Hong Kong will play Samoa tomorrow in the last cup quarterfinal at 10.40am at Hong Kong Football Club.

“China doesn’t seem to be as good as when we came across them last year in the Asian Series. It doesn’t mean to say that they have changed their whole team, but they definitely have a few new girls here this weekend but we have definitely improved our game,” said Hong Kong coach Anna Richards.

A brace from Natasha Olson-Thorne in the first five minutes, gave Hong Kong a confidence boost against China. A lovely solo effort from Aggie Poon from deep inside Hong Kong territory increased the lead to 19-0 at the break. China came back in the second half with a try but Hong Kong remained composed with Lai Pou-fan outstanding in defence forcing the mainland girls into repeated Lindsay Varty added a fourth try making full use of the space created by Kwong Sau-yan. Hong Kong rounded off a solid performance with Kwong scoring a fifth try before China scored a late consolation try.

Hong Kong had earlier in the day pulled off another fine victory over Kazakhstan 17-5, and opened their account with a 41-0 win over Singapore. “I am very happy with the way the girls performed and very happy with where we finished after day one. It has given us a great shot at day two,” said Richards. “We talked a lot this week about being calm and having ball control and that was what I was “We started off pretty well against Singapore and we scored a lot of early points, maybe we got a bit scrappy in the last three minutes or so but we still managed to win 41-0, so I was very happy with our start.

“We played a great match against Kazakhstan. Again we spoke about being calm and composed and a lot about ball control and keep tackling,” said Richards. “Our girls tackled their hearts out and scrambled really well on defence and scored three very important tries which gave us a fantastic win. Last year, we traded wins with Kazakhstan over the season, but today our game against them was probably some of the best rugby and free-running rugby that I have seen our girls play. That game gave the girls a huge amount of confidence going into the China game,” Richards continued.

Hong Kong will come up against Samoa who they met last month in a losing cause at “Our girls were really disappointed the last time we played and this give us another shot at them,” Richards added.

Hong Kong’s goal is to reach the Cup final for the first time in the history of the Hong Kong Women’s Sevens and play in front of the Friday night crowd at the Hong Kong Sevens.

Rowan Varty: Hong Kong Sevens Legend

Rowan Varty: Hong Kong Legend

Rowan Varty, a local rugby legend, is Hong Kong’s all-time leading try and points scorer at the Sevens. bc spoke to him as he prepares to compete in his 10th Sevens and amazingly to make his 30th visit to So Kon Po.

How can a 29 year old be attending his 30th HK Sevens?
By going every year of my life! I was born just before the Sevens, my parents took me as new born baby and I guess I enjoyed myself.

As a spectator, any memories that stand out?
The 1993 final between Western Samoa (as they were) and Fiji. W. Samoa won and it was pouring with rain. The atmosphere was electric, it’s the only time I can remember getting the same feeling off the pitch as on it!

As a player how have the Sevens changed for you over the last decade?
Our approach has become more professional. We used to go to the South Stand in between games to hang out with our mates. Now we go back to the hotel and rest! It is still the highlight of the year though.

IMG_8893-XLFavourite HK Sevens team memory?
It has to be winning the shield in 2010. It was the first year of the new format, so it was equivalent to winning the old bowl. We were mobbed after collecting the trophy and only made it a quarter way round the stadium on the victory lap before Canada, who had won the next final, overtook us!

Worst team experience?
The 2011 Sevens. We lost every game and it was a rude awakening.

Sevens is very much a team game, but what’s your favourite personal moment as a player?
Each time we run out of the tunnel and the stadium erupts, it makes training hard all year worthwhile.

You’re the all time leading HK try scorer at the HK Sevens what’s your ‘best’/favourite try you’ve scored at the HK Sevens?
I scored an important try in the quarter finals against Chile last year. It may not have been the most glamorous but it got us to the semis.

What do you do between games?
If theres a big enough break we will go back to the hotel and rest up. Its good to have a mental switch off between the periods of focus around the games. Otherwise we hang out in the players area across the road.

Do you watch many of the other games over the weekend?
We try to. I enjoy watching Fiji and England, so any chance I get I’ll watch them play. Also if other Asian teams are playing I’ll make the effort. We will often watch upcoming opponents if they are playing each other to get a feel of their game.

Pulling on the national jersey and running out into a cauldron of noise as 40,000 fans roar in support, can you describe what that feels like?
It is a feeling worth living for! If we have had a couple of good results, the fans are usually extra vocal and it lifts you as a player.

Catch Rowan and the rest of the Hong Kong team this weekend as look to qualify for the Sevens World Series by winning in Hong Kong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5aWvF7DnFM

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Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – Waisale Serevi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1QWQvN1X1U

Waisale Serevi, perhaps the most influential player in the history of sevens, has been announced as the sixth player inducted into the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union’s ‘The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven’.

Widely considered the world’s greatest-ever sevens player, Serevi was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2013 on the sidelines of the Hong Kong Sevens, where he made his international rugby name. He is the first Fijian to be inducted into the Hall of Fame and the first of his countrymen inducted into ‘The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven’.

Serevi, ‘the little magician’, made his Hong Kong debut in 1989, winning player of the tournament honours on debut, and would return on an astonishing 15 further occasions (1990-2000, 2002 and from 2005-07 as player/coach).

Serevi was a part of five cup-winning teams and reached the final on a further seven occasions, massively contributing to Fiji’s record 14 victories in Hong Kong. He was also instrumental in both of Fiji’s Rugby World Cup Sevens wins in Hong Kong in 1997 and 2005.

Uniquely, he has been named the best and fairest player of the Hong Kong Sevens on three occasions (1989, 1990 and 1998) and was also the player of the tournament at both the 1997 and 2005 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Hong Kong.

Serevi spearheaded two periods of remarkably sustained success for Fiji including three consecutive wins from 1990 to 1992 and from 1997 (Rugby World Cup Sevens) to 1999, making Fiji the only nation to have twice accomplished a three-peat in Hong Kong. New Zealand won from 1994 to 1996 and England won from 2002 to 2004.

Serevi also led Fiji to two silver medals at the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and 2002 and captured bronze in 2006. In 2005 he was appointed the Fiji Sevens coach, leading the team to the 2005/06 HSBC Sevens World Series title – the first occasion since the series’ inception in 2000 that the circuit was won by a team other than New Zealand.

In fifteen-a-side, Serevi played 39 times for Fiji in a career that ran from 1989 to 2003, scoring a total of 376 points. In 2002 Serevi topped 1,000 points all-time in Hong Kong.

He returned to lead Fiji to victory once again in Hong Kong at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in 2005, cementing his position in history by finishing as the Rugby World Cup Sevens’ all-time leading points scorer and goal scorer, and the second highest all-time try scorer.

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – Waisale Serevi

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – David Campese

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNZbzUHbNjI

Australia’s David Campese is the fifth member of ‘The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven’, as the HKRFU recognise the seven most formative players to have played in the past 40 Years of Sevens in Hong Kong.

Campo is truly one of a kind. The player who trademarked the goosestep was not as successful at sevens as he was at fifteen-a-side – 101 appearances for Australia and a then-record 64 international tries – but his contribution to the game of sevens and the Hong Kong Sevens was huge.

In 1983, Campese made the first of a dozen appearances in Hong Kong (1983-90, 93-94, 97-98). The Wallabies star lit up the tournament, helping Australia defend its title from the previous year in some of the wettest conditions ever recorded in Hong Kong in March. He would go on to capture two more Cups, in 1985 and 1988 – the last occasion Australia took the top silverware. Campo was as influential in his final match as he was in his first. He won the Leslie Williams Award for player of the tournament in 1988 and ten years later still had pace aplenty to run in tries for Australia.

Campese would bridge generations of powerful Wallaby sides in Hong Kong, from the Mark and Glen Ella, John Maxwell and Simon Poidevin sides of the 1980s to playing alongside Michael Lynagh, Jason Little, Tim Horan and George Gregan in the 1990s.

Campese said on several occasions that he had played his last match for Australia at Sevens but he was convinced to come out of semi-retirement to lead an inexperienced Wallabies team to the

Commonwealth Games in Malaysia in 1998. He proved an inspiration and the old head guided the young guns to a bronze medal, a fitting finale to a great sevens career spanning more than a decade.

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – David Campese

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – Eric Rush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHkKV0m-1l0

New Zealand sevens specialist Eric Rush is the fourth member of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union all-time international team, ‘The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven’.

In a glittering sevens career, Rush, alongside Fiji’s Waisale Serevi, was the face of the Hong Kong Sevens throughout the 1990s, playing in Hong Kong on an amazing 16 occasions and claiming the Cup on nearly one-third of those outings. His five tournament wins in Hong Kong include a purple patch of three straight Hong Kong Sevens titles from 1994 to 1996 as well as victories in 1989 and 2000.

He won the Leslie Williams Award for the Best & Fairest Player of the Hong Kong Sevens in 1991.

Overshadowing his nine test caps for the All Blacks and participation in nearly 30 matches with New Zealand, Eric Rush’s reputation as a rugby great is built on his career as one of the world’s foremost practitioners of modern sevens. Rush played in nearly 60 international sevens tournaments, and helped New Zealand win gold at the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and 2002 and at the 2001 Rugby World Cup Sevens.

With pace to burn, superb conditioning and unique pitch vision arising from his fifteen-aside experience as both a flanker and a wing, Rush brought an exceptional level of leadership to the New Zealand Sevens teams as a captain, helping to maintain New Zealand’s commitment to excellence through several generations of players.

Rush also distinguished himself as a member of the New Zealand Maori sides, playing in the 1988 tour of France and Argentina and in a total of 14 matches to 1991. After his move to the wing in 1992, Rush represented the New Zealand Maori on another 14 occasions including a fixture against the British & Irish Lions in 1993.

A qualified lawyer, Rush’s natural wit, intelligence and bright personality has seen him in high demand as an after-dinner speaker and in rugby circles he is nearly as well regarded for his role officiating the Hong Kong Sevens Long Lunch as for his exploits on the pitch at the Hong Kong Stadium.

Rush’s sevens fame has seen him acclaimed as an international star and over many seasons Rush has been invited to play for the British Barbarians in high profile festival games in the United Kingdom.

Rush will go down as one of the seminal players in sevens rugby.

 

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – Eric Rush

HK Beach 5s @ Repulse Bay – 22 March, 2015

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Bigger is not always better, last weekend’s Beach 5’s were devoid of people and atmosphere while swamped with corporate branding and data-mining promo girls demanding you sign-up for this or that.

Sadly the focus of profit over product meant that on Sunday afternoon beyond the teams and their friends cheering themselves on the event was empty apart from a bank of photographers taking pictures of the beach rugby.

You have to wonder who the Dodgeball people upset, they were stuck out-of-sight on the far-right of the beach behind one of the half empty stands at the end of the rugby field. A shame because they were one of the only sports where the teams dressed up and got into the feel of having fun – yet no-one could see costumes or their games.

The netball women were having lots of fiercely competitive matches, but with the ‘courts’ swung 90 degrees to run end to end instead of side to side as in previous years it was harder to watch multiple games at the same time and teams ended up only watching their game rather than being able to see other play at the same time.

Beach rugby was a fierce and competitive as ever, but the beach football was just boring – probably because the players lacked the skills to keep the ball in the air and tried to play ‘grass’ football style which just left the ball stuck in the sand and groans from the couple of people watching.

In past years teams had their own open-sided tents which worked as not only as places for the teams to relax and leave stuff but also as mini-social centers where friends would gather, talk, eat, drink… These helped set the friendly, social and fun feeling of the whole event. There were none this year, replaced with more sponsors booths, and the atmosphere was… well, sadly there wasn’t any.

The enthusiasm and sporting competitiveness remain, yet the fun and frivolity that made the Beach 5’s so enjoyable in previous years has been subsumed beneath the organisers greed to monetise and profit from the event.

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