Next year’s Hong Kong Sevens will be the last as the city knows it, with an expected move to a new 50,000-seat facility in Kai Tak in 2025 leaving behind decades of memories in Causeway Bay.
But it will also be the first of a new era, one in which the city’s men and women could be on the outside looking in, as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series is reduced to 12 teams in their respective competitions.
Both squads have an opportunity to make that core group, beginning at the Challenger Series in South Africa later this month, although in reality only the men have a serious shot at joining the elite of the game.
And even that is a slim one, with the Cape Town tournament just the first step on a journey that would take them to the London Sevens in May, where they would then need to see off the likes of Japan, Tonga, Kenya and potentially even Canada to make the dozen teams on the circuit.
A Hong Kong Sevens without Hong Kong would be in no one’s best interests, especially with a new stadium to fill and pay for, and Alan Gilpin, the World Rugby CEO, is under no illusions as to that fact.
But the need to find a space for those stuck outside the elite, in both the men’s and women’s game, goes beyond salvaging the unique atmosphere that makes Hong Kong Sevens “the destination on the series for a lot of the players”.
Of the 16 men’s teams playing this week, four will drop down to the Challenger Series, which at the moment is a one-off tournament that dictates a team’s entire year.
“Those four teams that are dropping into the challenger need to be dropping into something that’s going to allow them to continue to develop to the right level,” Gilpin said.
“We need to create that jeopardy between the series and the challenger on an annual basis to give real pathways.”
What that looks like in reality is still being discussed. Gilpin said there were “lots of ideas” and while in Hong Kong it could be the creation of a “four team Asia tournament” or an invitational event attached to the main series, that would not necessarily be the same for other host cities, such as Singapore.
Any uncertainty over the future does not extend to the impact of moving to a new venue, at least as far as Gilpin is concerned.
He visited Kai Tak on Saturday along with World Rugby’s chairman Bill Beaumont, and called the stadium “incredibly impressive”.
“I love the fact with the new stadium design they’ve got the South Stand, that’s a great tribute to what this means to sport in Hong Kong, that they’ve actually incorporated that into a modern stadium design. It’s going be a lot about keeping this atmosphere,” he said.
But the development, which will also include retail, restaurants and entertainment areas could also be the catalyst for bringing more international rugby to the city, according to the CEO.
Hong Kong has already been named as a potential venue for a game between the best teams in the northern and southern hemispheres, and Gilpin said the city’s position as a “gateway from one part of the world to another” presented opportunities.
“One of the things we are working hard on now, across competitions like Six Nations and the Rugby Championship, across a lot of the unions both at the very established level and emerging union level is, how do we create better competitions, how do we make sure we are creating more value in the game, for everybody,” he said.
“There is a real opportunity with the women’s game to dial that up quite quickly, and Hong Kong can be a bit of a destination venue I think in that regard.”
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