Hong Kong win in Dubai as they look to win the Asia Rugby Championship 2025 and qualify for the Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia.
Hong Kong v UAE
Asia Rugby Championship 2025
Date: 15 June, 2025
Venue: Dubai
Category: sport
Hong Kong 1-0 India
A 93-minute Stefan Pereira penalty saw the red tide, which had engulfed the new Kai Tak Stadium, erupt in joyous celebration as Hong Kong beat India 1-0 in an AFC Asian Cup qualification game.
A record crowd of over 42,000 packed the stadium, creating an atmosphere quite unlike any previous Hong Kong football international. To celebrate the first football game in the new stadium, the HK Football Association arranged the city’s first-ever massive Tifo – the massive banner, covering three sections, screams “Hong Kong Team Kick Ass”.
Fan representative Chester, who helped coordinate the surprise, revealed on a radio program today that the Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA) masterminded the project.
“I cried multiple times last night,” Chester admitted. “First, when we raised the Tifo, then again during the players’ entrance video – something we’ve only seen in Premier League or J.League matches before.”
“You could really feel how much preparation went into making Kai Tak feel like home,” Chester added, describing the experience as “goosebump-inducing.”
Hong Kong v India – AFC Asian Cup
Date: 8pm, 10 June, 2025
Venue: Kai Tak Stadium
Tickets: $200, $80
images: HKFA
Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races 2025
Under blue skies and bright sunshine, Victoria Harbour provided a stunning backdrop for the 2025 Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races. Fans packed the shoreline to watch local and international teams compete to be the best of the best.
Click on any photo to see more images
Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races Results
Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races
Date: 31 May 0-8 June, 2025
Venue: Central Harbourfront
Tickets: Free
images: HK Tourism Board
2025 Rugby Championship
SANZAAR has today confirmed the match schedule for the 2025 Rugby Championship that will be played from 16 August to 2 October.
The Rugby Championship (TRC) mini-tour format will remain in place, with each team playing six matches comprising three home matches and three away matches. Each team will host a two-match tour, will play an away two-match tour, and play a one-match home and away series against the third remaining team.
This year, South Africa will host Australia for two matches before heading to New Zealand for two away matches. New Zealand will head to Argentina for its away mini-tour prior to hosting South Africa, while Australia will host Argentina for two matches.
The Bledisloe Cup home and away Tests between Australia and New Zealand will take place in Perth and Auckland this year, with South Africa and Argentina meeting in Durban and London. The London fixture will be only the second time a Rugby Championship match has been played outside of the four core territories of Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
SANZAAR CEO Brendan Morris stated, “The Rugby Championship is the pinnacle of southern hemisphere rugby and one of the world’s most prestigious tournaments. This year will be no different as some of the best Test teams in the world do battle across 11 cities across the four nations.”
“Anticipation is again high for the 2025 edition of TRC as the top talent from Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa do battle for southern hemisphere supremacy. South Africa are the current World Champions and incumbent Rugby Championship champions, while Argentina are now fifth in the world rankings. New Zealand will warm-up with a Test series against France while the Wallabies have a big series against the British & Irish Lions to prepare for the Championship.”
“This year the tournament finishes with a match at Allianz Stadium Twickenham in London when Argentina host the Springboks. This is an exciting opportunity to showcase The Rugby Championship in the UK.”
Additional reporting and images: SANZAAR
Rugby Week 2025
After the individual creativity of Art Week, the wonders of team creativity are on display as Rugby Week 2025 scrums down.
The traditional rugby week curtain-raiser Kowloonfest celebrates it’s twentieth-anniversary tournament!
A new addition to Hong Kong’s Rugby Week is the Hong Kong International Touch Championship 2025. Touch rugby’s increasing popularity sees a move for the tournament to ‘Rugby Week’ with the hope of attracting new players and more fans. At last years
The best ‘rugby’ of the week, the Hong Kong 10s at Hong Kong Football Club, proper scrums and brutal power forward play are features of the Tens – especially on Thursday night. It’s perhaps the closest we in Hong Kong can get to seeing modern rugby up close and personal. Select teams packed with talent and big names, new and old, from around the world bring a physicality and rawness to the rugby images seen on television that really needs to be experienced in person.
Amidst the Sevens partying, a rugby tournament takes place… And this year it’s going to be at the new 50,000 seater Kai Tak Stadium… The main question among Sevens fans is will the move to the new stadium allow the HK Sevens to recover its allure as one of the world’s great sporting/social events? Tickets are still available, which is not a good sign…
Here are the dates for your Rugby Week 2025 diary.
Hong Kong International Touch Championship 2025
When: 23 March, 2025
Where: Happy Valley Recreation Ground
How much: tbc
More info: www.facebook.com/hktouch
Kowloon Fest – Twentieth Anniversay
When: 27 March 2025
Where: Kings Park
How much: Free
More info: www.rugbyfest.org
Hong Kong Tens
When: 26-27 March, 2025
Where: Hong Kong Football Club
How much: tbc
More info: www.hkfc10s.com
HK Sevens
HK Sevens
Date: 28-30 March 2025
Venue: Kai Tak Stadium
Tickets: $1,950
More info: www.HKsevens.com
Taking the Piss!! $5,288.50
Tickets for the Hong Kong Sevens at the new Kai Tak Stadium go on sale today and the HK Rugby Union have decided in their infinite wisdom, and outright greed, to add a ‘South Stand Upgrade’ price to the basic entry ticket.
The daily, yes daily, upgrade prices are $750 (Fri), $1,250 (Sat) and $1,250 (Sun) on top of the $1,950 ticket. Spending the weekend in the South Stand – without drinks or food- will cost $5,200!!!
Talking about ducking destroying part of what made the HK Sevens unique – hopefully, everyone will boycott the new ‘South Stand’ and there’ll be a big embarrassing empty stand exposing HK rugby’s greed to the world.
Hong Kong Sevens
Date: 28-30 March 2025
Venue: Kai Tak Stadium
Tickets: $1,950
South stand surcharge $750 (Fri), $1,250 (Sat), $1,250 (Sun)
More info: www.HKsevens.com
What Are the Cricket Sixes?
The Sixes started in 1992 but it’s been seven years since the last tournament, so here’s a brief guide to what’s going on!
It’s just like traditional cricket and all the regular laws of game apply except that each match only takes around 50 minutes to complete.
Why? As the name suggests the game is six players per side compared with the usual 11, which means once the bowler and wicket-keeper are in position there aren’t many fieldsmen that the batting team need to evade to hit lots of boundaries, so scoring should be fast and furious.
Each team faces five overs each, and everyone (except for the wicketkeeper) is required to bowl one over each.
Batsmen are forced to retire at 31, but can come back in once all other batsmen have been dismissed or have retired. This can make for some interesting situations at the end of the innings with the lower-order taking risky singles knowing that if they are out, their in-form batsman can come back in.
This year at the Hong Kong Sixes, eleven international teams plus hosts Hong Kong will play 30 matches over three days. The teams are split into four pools, with the results determining the seeding positions for the knockout matches.
Finals day includes four quarter-finals, with the four losers heading into the plate tournament, while the remaining four teams compete for the major title.
There’ll also be a women’s exhibition match on Sunday.
South Africa are the defending champions and they will face Hong Kong in the opening game at 8:30am on Friday morning.
Hong Kong will be captained by Nizakat Khan.
Hong Kong Squad:
Nizakat Khan (Captain), Ehsan Khan, Benny Singh Paras, Imran Arif, Jason Lui, Sahal Malvernkar, Zeeshan Ali
HK Cricket Sixes
Date: 1-3 November, 2024
Venue: Kowloon Cricket Club
Tickets: $1,200, $700, $600, $350 from HKticketing
East Asia Cup: Hong Kong 14, Japan 24
Japan beat Hong Kong 24-14 in Hokkaido to win the rugby league East Asia Cup 2024. The match was tightly fought but in the end, Hong Kong’s lack of playing time and international fixtures over the last six years allowed Japan to close out the match.
Congratulations to Japan on their victory. Congratulations to all the Hong Kong players and here’s hoping it’s not another six years until the next international.
Hong Kong v Japan – East Asia Cup
Date: 13:30, 13 October, 2024
Venue: Hokkaido, Japan
Tickets: Free
Additional reporting and images: HK Rugby League