The Rugby World Cup continued at the Stadium de Toulouse today as Japan faced up to the Samoan Siva Tau and a fierce Samoan flurry in the last quarter to clinch a hard-fought victory.
Click on any image to see the full gallery of photos.
All images copyright © of simon durrant / bc magazine
The Rugby World Cup 2023 kicked off tonight with hosts France beating New Zealand 27-13. At the Place de la Concorde fans from across the globe gathered to watch the game at the Rugby Village.
The action started a little earlier than planned with French police discovering and then blowing up a suspect package close to the rugby village. Which had expanded across the roads to accommodate the expected 40,000 fans.
As kick-off approached a noisy and expectant throng proudly sang their national anthems only to fall almost deathly quiet as New Zealand scored a quick opening try…
Test your power on the scrum machine.
Fans proudly sing La Marseillaise
Click on any image to see the full gallery of photos.
The Rugby World Cup 2023 begins in Paris today, but you’d be hard pressed to know it. The tournament appears invisible in a city preparing for the 2024 Olympics.
Walking down the iconic Champs-Élysées – which has a fair incline that is not apparent when watching the Tour de France cyclists race along it at 50mph – the Rugby World Cup doesn’t appear to exist. bc approached several people and asked if they knew the World Cup was starting today, sadly none did.
Why are the banners on the Champs-Élysées lampposts promoting Paris’s IT week not the World Cup?
The only obvious indication of the tournament’s presence in the city is the doubling of hotel and hostel prices and bars and restaurants increasing their prices for game day.
There is a Rugby Village at the Place de la Concorde but it doesn’t open until this afternoon (and only on select days afterwards) so there really is nowhere for visiting or local or new fans to gather and meet up.
A big part of rugby is the social camaraderie between fans, yet the tournament organisers seem to have done nothing to build awareness and interest in the game among new fans . It feels like a missed opportunity, especially as the recent women’s football World Cup showed how a country can be transformed by a tournament.
Surely influenced by the Hello Hong Kong marketing campaign, Super Typhoon Saola saw the HK Observatory raise the T10 storm signal for just the 16th time in over 100 years as Saola’s wind speeds topped 220km/h (135 mph).
Click on any photo to see the full gallery of images.
Radio Free Asia are reporting that Hong Kong government broadcaster RTHK has announced it will axe the LGBTQ+ radio show 自己人 We Are Family after 17 years on air, according to the show’s anchor and producers.
“I received personal notice at the beginning of July from the director of Radio Television Hong Kong’s Chinese channel that ‘We Are Family,’ which started up in 2006, is being officially terminated in August,” the show’s anchor Brian Leung said in a July 22 post on his Facebook page.
“In Hong Kong, we are mentally prepared, as a lot of things seem to be a matter of sooner or later,” Leung wrote in an apparent reference to an ongoing crackdown on liberal media and political opposition.
“There’s little we can do. What can be done has been done.”
Activists told Radio Free Asia that the move comes as Beijing continues to tighten its grip on public speech in Hong Kong, in a bid to make the city more patriotically Chinese.
Leung thanked his listeners and said it was “dark times” for equal rights, rather than the end of the road.
The show’s producers said on its official Facebook page that it had started in 2006 on the back of a wave of regional interest in LGBTQ+ culture sparked by Taiwanese director Ang Lee’s film “Brokeback Mountain.”
Continue reading the full article here
Today we honour and remember those who died in and around Tian’anmen Square in 1989.
We take time to light a candle in their memory! Not to make a political statement but because honouring and remembering those who have died is an important and integral part of Hong Kong, Chinese and yes English culture.
That some would threaten violence towards those who wish to remember the dead says far more about them than us… What next, will Ching Ming Festival be banned as well?
The theme for the second Hong Kong Refugee Week, 19-25 June, is compassion and throughout June different NGOs, independent projects and refugee artists celebrate what compassion looks like in action through a program of arts, cultural and educational events.
Refugee Week, an annual open-source festival each June, celebrates the contributions, creativity, and resilience of refugees and people seeking asylum. Founded in 1998 it’s held every year around World Refugee Day (20 June).
Refugee Week’s vision is for refugees and asylum seekers to be able to live safely within inclusive and resilient communities, where they can continue to make a valuable contribution.
Refugee Week Hong Kong 2023 participating organisations include Grassroots Future, The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Hong Kong (UNHCR HK), Justice Centre Hong Kong, Hope, RUN Hong Kong, Youth Global Network.
Refugee Week
Date: 19-25 June, 2023
Venue: Various
More info: @refugeeweekHK
Aston Villa secured a record-extending seventh HKFC Soccer Sevens title on Sunday as the Premier League outfit defeated Hong Kong’s Tai Po FC 3-0 at a packed Hong Kong Football Club to claim the trophy for the first time since 2016.
Omari Kellyman scored twice in the first half before Lee Ka-ho’s red card for a foul on the 17-year-old left Tai Po short-handed, with Frankie Ealing hitting his side’s third ahead of Luizinho’s late sending-off, which saw the Hong Kong side finish the game with five players.
“At the start of the tournament we had a disappointing result against Tai Po, so to bounce back and win all the games after that hasn’t been an easy thing to do,” said Kellyman, who ended as the tournament’s leading scorer with five goals.
“But we did it and I’m proud of the boys. It’s been a great experience. The tournament has been all about experience and to come out here and play the game I love has been great.
“The physical side of the game, the heat is very different from England. Coming out here, you’ve got to run the hard yards and do everything to the best of your ability. It’s been great.”
Tai Po had pulled off a surprise 1-0 win over Villa in the group meeting between the teams on Saturday but there was to be no repeat of that result as the Premier League side raced into an early lead.
Kellyman gave Villa the perfect start when he bent the opener into the top corner with less than two minutes on the clock and, five minutes later, he doubled the advantage with another strike from outside the area, steering a low left-foot shot beyond Tse Ka Wing.
Lee’s clumsy attempt to halt Kellyman in the ninth minute saw him receive a direct red card and Villa exploited their advantage, with Ealing netting his side’s third from close range after a miss-hit attempted clearance by Tse.
Luizinho received a second yellow card seven minutes into the second half to leave Tai Po with only five players and effectively ensure Villa were crowned champions once again.
Earlier in the day, defending champions Newcastle United crashed out in the quarter-finals, losing 2-0 to Aston Villa, who took on Kitchee in the last four after the Hong Kong Premier League champions had seen off Queens Park Rangers.
Tai Po, meanwhile, notched up a 1-0 win over Leicester City to set up a semi-final meeting with Brighton & Hove Albion following their 1-0 win over fellow Premier League club Fulham.
The Hong Kong Premier League outfit eliminated Brighton & Hove Albion in a penalty shoot-out as Villa beat Kitchee to set-up the decider, with the English club ultimately emerging victorious.
In the Masters Event, defending champions Wallsend Boys Club retained the title with a 2-1 sudden-death extra-time win over 2018 winners Ampcontrol Discovery Bay in the final, with Kim Dong-jin netting the winner.
Wallsend had seen off Rio Cricket Association Athletic to advance to the final for the second tournament in a row while Ampcontrol Discovery Bay defeated Hong Kong Football Club Masters to progress to the decider.
This year’s HKFC Soccer Sevens was the first since 2019 after the event was forced to take a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The 2023 HKFC Soccer Sevens has been a resounding success and I would like to thank all of our sponsors, the teams, Hong Kong Football Club members, and the fans who turned out in fantastic numbers to support this very special event,” said Hong Kong Football Club Chairman Neil Jensen. “We hope through future editions we can continue to showcase the positive qualities of our unique city and its love for this remarkable game.”
Soccer Sevens
Date: 26-28 May, 2023
Venue: HK Football Club
Tickets: $200 (Weekend pass), $120 (Day ticket), Free (Friday night)
More info:
22 May (Fri): 6 – 9pm; exhibition youth matches start at 4.30pm
23 May (Sat): 9am – 7.40pm
24 May (Sun): 8:30am – 6pm
images: HK Soccer Sevens
