What makes Hong Kong the most famous rugby sevens event in the world?

This historic tournament dates back to 1976 when it featured ten national teams and two club sides: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Tonga, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Fiji, the Australia Wallaroos and New Zealand Cantabrians. It was described as the “most colorful day of international sport I have ever seen” by co-founder Tokkie Smith. The New Zealand Cantabrians won the inaugural event 44 years ago.

USA Readies For Hong Kong 7s

Since the HSBC Sevens World Series began in 2000, Hong Kong continued that colorful tradition and for me it’s the 40,000 fans that bring the event to life each and every year. When I played on the Series, the best-attended event outside of Asia during 2007-2009 was Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand. 

But the fans did sometimes start the party too early, which meant it wasn’t always full throughout the weekend. London was another brilliant venue, and despite setting record attendance for a single day with over 70,000 fans, it did cause some safety issues and drew complaints in the neighborhood of Twickenham. The result was only half the number of tickets being made available for that event in the UK. 

But Hong Kong consistently sells out every year, which makes it one of the most desirable tickets on the Series.

I first watched the Hong Kong 7s when my then room-mate Brent Russell represented the South African Blitzboks. One week we where playing rugby together for the Ikey Tigers at the University of Cape Town, and the next I was watching this legend on TV at the most iconic 7s event on the planet.

After seeing the likes of Waisale Serevi perform magic for Fiji, Hong Kong was near the top of my bucket list. As luck would have it, that opportunity arose three years later when I was invited to play in the Hong Kong 10s and Kowloon RugbyFest for the Pacific Coast Grizzlies by coach John Tyler. 

This was only my second international tournament and the competing teams brought in several former and future internationals like Tony Brown (All Blacks) and Tomasi Cama (New Zealand 7s legend). I’ll never forget trying in vain to stop Toutai Kefu—who had recently retired from the Australian Wallabies with 60 caps—and who weighed in at about 250 pounds—all of it coming at me!

Having additional tournaments around an HSBC Sevens World Series event creates much more excitement for all those that get to take part. Las Vegas has done this superbly over the last decade, and it means that as a spectator you enjoy the event even more in a large group. 

The Melrose Cup

That 2005 Hong Kong 7s was also the Rugby World Cup Sevens, which was before they decided to hold a stand-alone event for the Melrose Cup. As a fan you have plenty of options to watch at Hong Kong Stadium, and for us as a group of young tourists, we had to experience the famous South Stand. It was carnage, it was the time of our lives. I had never seen so many funny fancy dress outfits, tremendous fun and such a festival atmosphere.

One of the exciting components of traveling is exploring new countries and cultures, and Hong Kong certainly delivers. With the language barrier, you are hyper aware that you are in Asia, but it also hosts small pockets of foreigners.  

For me it was a dream come true to be selected to represent the USA at the Hong Kong 7s in 2007, 2008 & 2009 and be able to play at the same venue that I watched the King of Sevens, Serevi, win the Sevens World Cup. 

Playing conditions were amongst the toughest I had experienced, with such high humidity and long thick grass, making one feel heavy on the field. But with 40,000 fans cheering it was remarkable to be center stage for those matches.

Hong Kong has been won by Samoa (2), England (4), New Zealand (5) and Fiji on 8 occasions including the last four! It’s extremely interesting that only four teams have lifted the Cup at this prestigious tournament on the HSBC Sevens World Series in the last 20 years. Will we see the USA make history this coming weekend? I hope so. 

And if you get a chance to attend one 7s tournament, make sure it’s Hong Kong.

Dallen Stanford is a World Rugby commentator on the HSBC Sevens World Series, having played for the USA 7s Eagles from 2007-2009. He called the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco, and will be in the booth this season for the Americas Rugby Championship, World Rugby u20 Championship, Major League Rugby as well as the Las Vegas, Vancouver, Singapore 7s. Follow him @TheRugbyCorner on Instagram & Twitter.