{"id":498980,"date":"2026-02-23T14:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498980\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T14:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:21:10","slug":"rugby-7s-royalty-ben-gollings-bringing-chennai-bulls-to-play-in-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498980\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby 7s royalty Ben Gollings bringing Chennai Bulls to play in Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Ben Gollings believes world rugby chiefs still need to locate the \u201csweet spot that will bring the attractiveness back to sevens\u201d, after a controversial overhaul last year shrank their marquee HSBC SVNS Series.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Sevens royalty following a record-breaking playing career, Englishman Gollings is on the frontline of attempts to grow the sport in India, and he will lead the recently formed franchise team Chennai Bulls in this year\u2019s expanded Tradition HKFC 10s.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe want to provide more opportunities for players to gain exposure to rugby outside India \u2026 and the HKFC10s is a great breeding ground,\u201d Gollings said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The elite sevens circuit has slimmed to eight core teams from the 15 that competed in the 2022-23 season, creating something of a closed shop.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cGetting in the top eight has become a much more cutthroat process,\u201d Gollings said, while acknowledging the revised format had delivered competitive rugby over the season\u2019s opening four tournaments.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ben Gollings scoring for England against the United States at the 2011 Hong Kong Sevens. Photo: K. Y. Cheng\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/c70f6d38-8f65-4ed2-9a46-6440cda84514_76a94cee.jpg\" title=\"Ben Gollings scoring for England against the United States at the 2011 Hong Kong Sevens. Photo: K. Y. Cheng\"\/>Ben Gollings scoring for England against the United States at the 2011 Hong Kong Sevens. Photo: K. Y. Cheng<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cI would love to see it grow back to 12 or 16 sides \u2026 it\u2019s missing some flavour that extra teams bring on and off the field; the support they have and their styles of rugby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Gollings believes world rugby chiefs still need to locate the \u201csweet spot that will bring the attractiveness&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[251052,64,63,251053,2065,36452,251058,1208,251051,10340,251055,1209,29477,760,122029,251057,251054,85,251056],"class_list":["post-498980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-asia-trophy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ben-gollings","tag-canada","tag-cathay-hsbc-hong-kong-sevens","tag-chennai-bulls","tag-england","tag-hkfc-10s","tag-hong-kong","tag-hsbc-svns-series","tag-india","tag-kai-tak-stadium","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-football-union","tag-rugby-premier-league","tag-simon-amor","tag-sports","tag-tradition-hkfc-10s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498980","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=498980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}