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Hong Kong Sevens – Who’s Coming?

hk sevens winners 2015

The teams for this year’s Hong Kong Sevens (8-10 April) have been announced with 16 teams contesting the core competition and 12 teams competing in the qualifier tournament for a chance at promotion to the Sevens World Series next season.

The 15 teams participating in all ten tournaments of Sevens World Series: Argentina, Australia, Canada, England, Fiji, France, Kenya, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, United States of America and Wales are joined by South Korea for the HK Sevens.

Rugby Sevens’ debut at the Olympics looms ever larger on the horizon and all eleven of the qualified teams for the Rio Games will be present in Hong Kong. The 12th men’s team to compete in Rio will be determined in the final Olympic qualifier tournament in June.

Fiji, the defending Hong Kong Sevens champions after their 33-19 win over New Zealand in 2015, will be looking to add to their 15 tournament victories in Hong Kong, including both Rugby World Cup Sevens played here in 1997 and 2005. Fiji’s 15 wins are the most in Hong Kong history, ahead of New Zealand with 11.

Hong Kong is again host for the the battle for promotion to the Sevens World Series. The qualification tournament features 12 teams, two from each of World Rugby’s six regions. The winner will be promoted to the SWS in the 2016/17 season, replacing the bottom-placed core team on the Series after the completion of the final event at Twickenham in May. Russia were promoted from last year’s qualifier, replacing Japan who return to the qualifier in 2016.

The twelve confirmed teams for the qualifier are Morocco and Zimbabwe (Africa), Hong Kong and Japan (Asia), Germany and Spain (Europe), Cayman Islands and Mexico (North America), Brazil and Chile (South America) and Papua New Guinea and Tonga (Oceania).

The Cayman Islands appearance at the Hong Kong Sevens makes them the the 58th nation to have participated since the tournament’s inception in 1976. While Germany return to Hong Kong for the first time since 1992.

HK Sevens
Fiji, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, England, USA, Kenya, Francem Samoa, Scotland, Canada, Wales, Portugal, Russia, South Korea

Sevens World Series Qualification Tournament
Hong Kong, Japan, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Chile, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Germany, Spain, Papua New Guinea, Tonga

Hong Kong Sevens 2016
Date: 8-10 April 2016
Venue: HK Stadium
Tickets: $1,800 (sold-out)

Source and photo: HKRU

Saturday at the Sevens – The Proclaimers

Saturday’s Sevens musical entertainment this year is eighties band The Proclaimers. Over an almost twenty year career twin brothers Craig and Charlie Reid have carved a niche for themselves where pop, folk, new wave and punk collide with the emotional honesty, political fire, wit and sing-along raucousness of their songs to entertain fans around the globe. As big fan David Tennant puts it “They write the most spectacular songs, big hearted, uncynical passionate songs.” Their songs were turned into a stage play and then a movie based on the stage play based on the songs… Expect to be singing along to the likes of (I’m Gonna Be) 500 Miles, Sunshine on Leith, Letter From America, I’m on My Way, Life With You, Lets Get Married…

Rugby Week 2016

It’s an Olympic year and a very late in the calendar rugby week in Hong Kong offers both men’s and women’s qualifiers a final chance for players to impress as Rugby 7s debuts at Rio 2016. Here are the dates for your diary this April for what promises to be a fantastic week of sport and fun.

The Hong Kong Beach 5s [Cancelled]
When: 2-3 April, 2016
Where: Repulse Bay Beach
How much: Free
More info: www.hkbeach5s.com

Kowloon Fest
When: 9am, 6 April, 2016
Where: Kings Park
How much: Free
More info: www.rugbyfest.org
Contact: [email protected]

Hong Kong Tens
When: 6-7 April, 2016
Where: Hong Kong Football Club
How much: tbc
More info: www.hongkongtens.com

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2015/HK-Sevens-2015-Friday/i-SgZZ4xr

Hong Kong Women’s Rugby Sevens
When: 7-8 April, 2016
Where: 7 April: Kings Park, 8 April: HK Football Club, Final: HK Stadium
How much: Free
More info: www.facebook.com/hkwr.sevens

Hong Kong 7s
When: 8-10 April, 2016
Where: HK Stadium
How much: $1800 (sold out)
More info: www.hksevens.com

photo: HKRU

Sevens Ticket Ballot 2016 Registration

The annual farce of the Sevens ticket ballot begins again today as registration opens for the public ticket ballot. The registration period runs from 27 November to 31 January, 2016 with the ballot taking place on the 5 February, 2016 and winners notified that day by email.

There are 9,000 individual tickets on-sale. Since regular tickets are sold as 3-day pass. There’s actually only 3,000 tickets available to the public each day in the 40,000 seater stadium. The rest are whored out to corporate sponsors or as a ‘reward’ for joining (and funding) a local rugby club. You don’t even have to play rugby, a social member as long as you’ve paid the membership fees (For example SCAA Causeway Bay charges $900 annually for a non-playing membership) can apply to buy a full three day ticket at cost price. Or roughly added in with membership fees, about the same as you’d pay a street ‘reseller’ – which is where many of those tickets and those reserved forsale overseas end up. Sadly as the minuscule crowd that turned up for the Olympic qualifiers showed, it’s the event not the rugby that’s the attraction. So if you want a better chance of a sevens ticket, join a rugby club – you’ll support the local game and you never know you might even enjoy the rugby.

Those who ‘win’ in the ballot will need to pay for their tickets by 19 February 2016. The ticket cost is HK$300 for Friday, HK$750 for Saturday and HK$750 for Sunday. In addition an administration fee of HK$50 will be charge for each ticket.

To register http://hksevens.com/tickets/ballot-registration

Hong Kong Women’s Squad for Olympic Rugby 7s Qualifiers

Hong Kong Women’s Sevens coach Anna Richards has picked an experienced squad for the first leg of the Asian Olympic qualifiers, captained by Christy Cheng Ka Chi after pre-season captain Royce Chan Leong Sze failed to recover from injury.

With seven Hong Kong Women’s Sevens appearances under her belt, Cheng has proven a more than capable captain, leading the squad to its first Asian Sevens cup win at the opening event of the Series in Qingdao, China.

Richards was pleased with the build-up and the final squad selected. “We were pretty much able to select from our first choice squad with the exception of Royce who was coming off a long injury lay-off. Ultimately she was impacted when we changed the forwards-backs split. We have gone with seven backs, which meant that we couldn’t carry a specialist hooker. Royce is obviously disappointed but we know her leadership abilities and that she and all of the girls in the squad will be backing the team fully.

“We are fortunate to have Christy, who has stepped into the captaincy seamlessly. She’s been vice captain for several years and has captained Hong Kong at 15s so she is a great leader and has performed extremely well in the series,” said Richards.

Other influential veterans picked include vice-captain Natasha Olson-Thorne who has battled her way through injuries this season but continues to make her mark felt with fierce midfield running and clinical finishing. She was the second leading scorer for Hong Kong over the season with six tries from two tournaments.

“Natasha is doing well after being injured in Qingdao. That injury set her back a bit for the finale in Sri Lanka, but since then she has worked hard to get her fitness levels back and will be an important part of what we need to do next weekend.”

Candy Cheng Tsz Ting, Amelie Seure and Lindsay Varty are also experienced campaigners along with Aggie Poon Pak Yan, who has been the superstar of the Asian Series this year, finishing as topscorer with 17 tries and 121 points from two tournaments. Poon will need to maintain her form next weekend with the team relying on her finishing abilities.

Richards has also shown faith in 22-year old Chong Ka Yan, who only made her senior squad debut in September.

“Ka Yan gives us more speed in the backline which is always useful. It’s going to be a tough tournament and we can’t expect players like Aggie Poon to play every minute of every game if we want to be successful. It will be great to be able to call upon Ka Yan. She can add some real firepower for us off the bench,” Richards said.

With some dropouts in the women’s competition, the complexion of the tournament has changed. All of the six participating women’s teams will be in a single pool with the top two teams emerging from the round-robin pool stage advancing to the final.

“It’s not ideal to have teams dropping out late, and it’s a real shame for the girls in those teams. Now with the single pool competition, it makes for a very tough tournament to come out on top,” Richards added.

But Hong Kong is well prepared according to Richards: “We have been training well and we have the self-belief that we can win at this level. There are always more things you want to work on, but the girls are in a good place and with strong support from the local crowd I think we can get through.”

Richards is stressing consistency to her charges. “We have to replicate what we did in Qingdao where we minimised our errors and played consistently. If we can do those things and hold onto the ball we know we can put points on the board. But we have to make sure our approach is correct.

“The players have been working so hard and they have been playing together for a few years now and that builds real strength within the side. Our performance on the Series has given them the belief that they can win and that was a huge hurdle for us in the past. We didn’t have that belief a year and a half ago.

“That self-belief combined with what we hope will be great support from the hometown fans will be invaluable. The girls are mentally stronger and are in a good place heading into the qualifier,” Richards concluded.

Hong Kong Women’s Sevens Squad
Christy CHENG KA CHI (Captain), Amelie SEURE, CHENG Tsz Ting, CHONG Ka Yan, KWONG Sau Yan, LAI Pou Fan, Lindsay VARTY, Natasha OLSON-THORNE (Vice Captain), NAM Ka Man, POON Pak Yan, SHAM Wai Sum, Stephanie CUVELIER.

Olympic Sevens Qualifier Tickets Onsale 14 August

An anonymous source has informed bc that tickets for the Women’s and Men’s Olympic Rugby 7s Qualifier tournament on the 7-8 November at the HK Stadium will go onsale on the 14th August from Ticketflap (www.ticketflap.com).

That 24 hours before the tickets are scheduled to go onsale there’s been no announcement to public is another example of the Union unable to organise a piss-up in a brewery. This despite rugby’s renowned enjoyment of the personal waitress service and beverages that many Wanchai and Angeles’s breweries offer.

While tickets prices were released weeks ago, $360 (2-day pass), $200 (1-day pass), there’s been no information from the HKRFU or Asia Rugby about the number of tickets for public sale. There should though, be more than the 3000/day HK Sevens tickets that the public were allowed to maul over in March.

The women’s qualifier is an 8 team event, the first part of a two leg qualification process that culminates in Tokyo on 28-29 November 2015. Teams competing in the women’s event are China, Hong Kong, Japan, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Uzbekistan.

The men’s tournament is a 12 team event featuring with the men’s winner claiming Asia’s sole automatic slot amongst the 12 teams participating in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where Rugby Sevens will make its much anticipated debut.

Teams competing in the men’s event are Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Thailand and China

Asia Rugby Sevens Olympic Qualifier
Date: 7-8 November, 2015
Venue: HK Stadium
Tickets: $360 (2-day pass), $200 (1-day pass), under 12 free from Ticketflap
More info: Public sale from 14 August

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – Jonah Lomu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxmXMX6AXMU

The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven – Jonah Lomu (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxmXMX6AXMU)

The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union (HKRFU) has named Jonah Lomu as the seventh and final member of ‘The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven’, the HKRFU’s assembly of the top seven players to have played at the Hong Kong Sevens over the past 40 years.

Lomu was inducted into ‘The Magnificent Seven’ last night at the 40 Years of Sevens Gala dinner in Hong Kong along with the announced co-winners of the HKRFU’s Hong Kong Hometown Legend campaign, Rowan Varty and Keith Robertson.

Quite possibly the most famous rugby player in history, Jonah Lomu made his debut appearance in Hong Kong in 1994, giving Hong Kong Sevens fans a privileged opportunity to witness a superstar in the making.

Lomu came to Hong Kong as an unheralded youngster but exited the Sevens on the cusp of stardom. Months later he would be selected as the then youngest-ever All Black at just 19 years and 45 days old, making his debut appearance against France. The following year he cemented his reputation as rugby’s most unstoppable force by scoring seven tries at the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa.

Lomu would return to the Hong Kong Sevens in 1995 and 1996 to anchor New Zealand to three successive tournament victories and secure himself an abiding place in Hong Kong’s sporting lore.

He also helped New Zealand win the gold medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and led his country to its first Rugby World Cup Sevens victory at the 2001 world championships in Argentina. He is the third Kiwi named in ‘The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven’.

The expert panel of sevens specialists convened by the HKRFU to adjudicate ‘The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven’ obviously did their homework. At yesterday’s pre-event press conference ahead of the 2015 Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens (27-29 March), Sir Gordon Tietjens, in charge of the New Zealand Sevens team since 1994, was queried about the three best players he has ever coached.

After little deliberation, Tietjens named Eric Rush, Christian Cullen and Lomu. All three have been named into the Magnificent Seven – making New Zealand the only nation with multiple recipients of this unique honour.

The complete Hong Kong Magnificent Seven are:

Zhang Zhiqiang	China
Ben Gollings	England
Christian Cullen	New Zealand
Eric Rush	New Zealand
David Campese	Australia
Waisale Serevi	Fiji
Jonah Lomu	New Zealand

Photos and videos courtesy of their respective owners

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – Waisale Serevi

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

The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven – 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.