{"id":617369,"date":"2026-04-19T15:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/617369\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T15:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:47:11","slug":"hong-kong-recognised-as-global-player-in-world-rugby-after-record-breaking-sevens-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/617369\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong recognised as \u2018global player\u2019 in world rugby after record-breaking Sevens party"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Hong Kong brought the curtain down on its 50th anniversary Sevens in front of another record crowd on Sunday, and with the head of World Rugby calling the city a \u201csignificant global player\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">According to organisers, some 113,395 supporters passed through the gates over the three days of the Cathay Pacific\/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, the biggest official attendance since the tournament began in 1976.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">And while New Zealand\u2019s women successfully defended their title, South Africa\u2019s men won in Hong Kong for the first time, adding to the HSBC SVNS Series crown they clinched in New York last month.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Hong Kong\u2019s men also made it a day to remember for their home fans, beating Japan in the Melrose Claymores final, 24 hours after being humbled by the same opponents in the group stages.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe love Hong Kong. The fans brought it out today,\u201d James Christie, the Hong Kong co-captain, said. \u201cThey\u2019re always our eighth man on the field. Every pass, every instant of the game, they\u2019re just cheering for us, and that helped us massively throughout.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Hong Kong\u2019s fans have been described as the team\u2019s \u201ceighth man on the field\u201d. Photo: Karma Lo\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/a44b20cb-ccd9-4159-86e9-15eba2dc868b_d5301715.jpg\" title=\"Hong Kong\u2019s fans have been described as the team\u2019s \u201ceighth man on the field\u201d. Photo: Karma Lo\"\/>Hong Kong\u2019s fans have been described as the team\u2019s \u201ceighth man on the field\u201d. Photo: Karma Lo<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Although fewer in number than Saturday\u2019s record crowd, the 37,570 spectators making the trip on the last day again included fans visiting for the first time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hong Kong brought the curtain down on its 50th anniversary Sevens in front of another record crowd on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[53572,64,63,11308,299463,3739,10340,108862,33979,941,299464,1025,1736,760,5993,1183,85,18559],"class_list":{"0":"post-617369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-asian-games","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-brazil","12":"tag-cathay-pacific","13":"tag-fiji","14":"tag-hong-kong","15":"tag-hong-kong-china-rugby","16":"tag-hsbc","17":"tag-japan","18":"tag-kai-tak-youth-sports-ground","19":"tag-new-york","20":"tag-new-zealand","21":"tag-rugby","22":"tag-samoa","23":"tag-south-africa","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-tonga"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617369","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=617369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}