{"id":251931,"date":"2025-10-30T23:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T23:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/251931\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T23:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T23:22:08","slug":"nrl-side-south-sydney-rabbitohs-super-league-club-st-helens-eye-hong-kong-for-2027-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/251931\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL side South Sydney Rabbitohs, Super League club St Helens eye Hong Kong for 2027 clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hong Kong could host a clash between Australian rugby league giants South Sydney Rabbitohs and English side St Helens in 2027, if officials from both clubs have their way.<\/p>\n

St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus, who played rugby union for Hong Kong, has thrown his considerable influence behind the idea, which would form part of a groundbreaking global round of matches being considered by the NRL in Australia.<\/p>\n

And McManus has reportedly been backed by Blake Solly, CEO of the Rabbitohs, who are sponsored by MG Motor, which is owned by the Chinese car company SAIC Motor.<\/p>\n

While officials in Hong Kong said they had yet to be approached by anyone about the plan, which would see Kai Tak Stadium host one of several games to be played worldwide to start the 2027 season, there was considerable enthusiasm for it among those running sport in the city.<\/p>\n

As there has been from McManus, who told Australian newspaper The Age that he had \u201cbeen pushing Hong Kong for 25 years\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"StSt Helens chairman Eamonn McManus is no stranger to Hong Kong. Photo: Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the first instance I was pushing it as a venue for the World Cup Challenge,\u201d said McManus, who lived in the city for 20 years. \u201cIt just seemed like the natural place to go \u2026 and now they\u2019ve got a fantastic new stadium. It\u2019s always been a venue that is open to international sporting events. Obviously, they have the Hong Kong Sevens. The NFL have even played there historically.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hong Kong could host a clash between Australian rugby league giants South Sydney Rabbitohs and English side St…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,132237,40696,5951,149330,2592,244,10340,149329,29477,2623,2022,149327,158,760,85,149328],"class_list":["post-251931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-rugby-league-commission","tag-blake-solly","tag-dubai","tag-eamonn-mcmanus","tag-france","tag-hawaii","tag-hong-kong","tag-hong-kong-sevens","tag-kai-tak-stadium","tag-las-vegas","tag-london","tag-mg-motor","tag-nrl","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-st-helens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}