(from BlitzBokke.com)

The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union (HKRFU) announced that after today’s public ticket sale, the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens is now officially sold out.

The world-renowned Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens expects to welcome 120,000 visitors over three days from March 23 – 25, 2012.

Remaining 4,000 tickets

After an initial pre-sale period for international package buyers and local rugby clubs and supporters, the last remaining 4,000 event tickets were sold today to members of the Hong Kong public. To ensure the widest possible distribution of tickets in the local community, each buyer was allowed to purchase a maximum of two tickets in today’s sale.

Following today’s sale, and the pre-sale period for members of local rugby clubs from adult to youth and mini rugby and other HKRFU stakeholders, fully 75% of the 40,000 tickets available in 2012 were sold to local residents.

Trevor Gregory, Chairman of the HKRFU, commented on today’s sellout saying, “This year’s Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens has once again attracted extraordinary demand. On behalf of the HKRFU, I would like to thank the Hong Kong community for their continued support. The 2012 Hong Kong Sevens will again provide a significant boost to the local economy and Hong Kong’s international reputation. We look forward to hosting another full house at the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens this March.”

Online frustration

A quick social media scan among local South Africans revealed that, as in previous years when tickets where sold by local online retailer HKTicketing, this year’s vendor CityLine didn’t fare much better.

“I gave up after 20 minutes.” said Eugene Wong. Katharine Schäfli concurred: “Meanwhile Cityline’s servers groan under the strain of the number of hits……. no improvement from HK Ticketing then!”

However, Monique Tenderini had more patience and was luckier. “(It) took nearly 3 hours but I managed to get 2. Was using 2 iPads, a pc and a laptop…”

See you at The Sevens!

(From BlitzBokke.com)

The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union (HKRFU) today announced that the public ticket sale for the 2012 Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens will be held via local ticketing service Cityline this Saturday, January 14, 2012.

To further enhance the ticket purchasing process and convenience for local consumers, tickets for the 2012 Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens will be retailed via ticketing service Cityline.

Tickets will be sold exclusively online via www.cityline.com. No tickets will be sold via Cityline Outlets or Call Centres.

Online ticket sale will begin at 10.00am on January 14, 2012.

To ensure the widest possible distribution of tickets in the local community, each patron will be limited to purchase only two tickets. Each applicant will also be required to verify their local residency with a valid Hong Kong or Macau SAR postal address for registered mail or courier services.

Tickets will be distributed to successful applicants starting from March 1, 2012 via registered mail or courier service only (additional cost may incur and details are available at www.cityline.com). There will be no personal collection of tickets.

Following the increased demand from Hong Kong rugby clubs, Youth and Mini Rugby Sections and members of the local rugby community as well as other HKRFU stakeholders during the initial pre-sale period, the HKRFU today announced that 4,000 tickets will be available for sale to the public.

The 2012 Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens will be held from March 23 – 25 at the Hong Kong Stadium.

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The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union have announced that Cathay Pacific and HSBC will be the new co-title sponsors of the world-famous Hong Kong Sevens from 2012 – 2015.

The sponsorship agreement with previous co-sponsor Credit Suisse concluded at the end of the successful 2011 tournament.

The four-year sponsorship agreement announced today resumes a successful partnership between these two iconic Hong Kong institutions and the world’s pre-eminent international sevens. Cathay Pacific and HSBC’s previous joint sponsorship of the Hong Kong Sevens ran from 1980 through to the first of two Rugby World Cup Sevens held in Hong Kong in 1997.

Under the new sponsorship agreement the event title will be the Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens.

Cathay Flight Attendant Margaret Lai, Trevor Gregory (HKRFU), John Slosar Chief Executive, Cathay Pacific, Stuart Gulliver, Global Chief Executive, HSBC, Brian Stevenson (HKRFU), Ida Chan, Cathay Pacific Flight attendant. Front row: Twins and Hong Kong mini rugby players Janice Chan Shang-yan and Jeffery Chan Shang-Ming

HSBC’s sponsorship of the Hong Kong Sevens continues its growing support of Sevens internationally through the HSBC Sevens World Series and marks its only title sponsorship of an HSBC Sevens World Series event to date.

The continued involvement of Cathay Pacific as an event sponsor strengthens a 30-year association with the Hong Kong Sevens – a unique longevity in international sports sponsorship.

The Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2012 will be held on 23-25 March.

(Source: BlitzBokke.com)

I’m so fortunate that, weeks after yet another successful Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens, dedicated fans from all over the globe (Saffas, of course) are sending me pics about this year’s tournament.

One such fan, some would say by ‘default’ is Trish Brown, mother of current Springbok Sevens skipper Kyle.

I’m still adding images to our Flickr-Album and will be adding Trish’s images as well.

This particular image of the Hong Kong Stadium is one of my favourites (below).

Remember, if you were at the Sevens and would like to share your memories and images, please send them along. If you want to tell us about your experiences and what stood out for you at this year’s event, you are more than welcome to do so too. Send any contributions to mike(at)howzit-hongkong(dot)com

In his latest column for irbsevens.com, South Africa head coach Paul Treu looks back to some of his memories from Hong Kong and talks about why he believes it to be the best Sevens tournament in the world…

There is no doubt. For me, Hong Kong is always going to be the biggest tournament in the world.

Obviously Dubai and Wellington are right up there but Hong Kong will always be regarded as, not the birth place because Scotland is the birth place of Sevens, but as the one tournament that everyone wants to play in and in my mind it is always going to stay there.

It is of course special for me now because I have been to Hong Kong so many times as a player and as a coach.

As a player the first memory I have is in my first tournament. I remember being unable to run, I was so nervous and I just couldn’t cope with the pressure.

But now in my seventh year as a coach, it is a bit different. It is difficult because with some of our new players like Paul Jordaan and Tshotsho Mbovane, I know it is the same feeling that they are going to feel when they run onto the park.

Vibrant Hong Kong

That makes me have a different kind of focus now. In my playing career, at that point in time you are just hoping you can make it as a player and the team do well.

Now you have to manage that team and the individual players too and there is a pressure to perform now that everyone is putting so much more energy, time and money into Sevens.

But for me as a player, and as a coach, what makes Hong Kong number one is the crowd, the vibe, the stadium and the city itself, which is just so vibrant.

Staying in the hotel with one of the most impressive skylines, it is one of the most impressive images you get. And for these young guys to experience it all, the atmosphere, the stadium and one of the best cities in the world, it is something to play for and something they will cherish for the rest of their lives.

It is also the only tournament where you can sing your national anthem if you make the final. We have experienced that three times now, twice for me as a coach and once as a player.

That gives players something else to play for, to sing the national anthem you would like to stand there and feel that with your teammates and that is something we would like to give the players this year as well.

Legends are born

So many players have made their names here in Hong Kong. It is difficult to name a best player that I have played against because even at the time there were so many good players. Eric Rush, Karl Tenana and even Waisele Serevi, but there were many more quality quality players.

For me the New Zealand team have always been the standout players, however, especially the team in 2000/01 with Rush, Tenana, and Dallas Seymore. But over the years you get so many players that play in Hong Kong who become legends of the game.

I can think back to two years ago too when we had Mzwandile Stick, who went on to become one of the stars on the Series, and he made his name and started his career here.

Just think, Jonah Lomu started here, Christian Cullen started here, it is really a place where a player can launch his career and for the youngsters now, like Paul Jordaan and Tshotsho Mbovane this will be another opportunity to do that this year.

I am sure we will also see players from the other countries using this tournament as a stepping stone too.

The SAAHK Sevens Dinner was again a huge event on the South Africans-in-Hong Kong’s social calendar.

The guest speaker this time around was the former Springbok captain, Morne Du Plessis.

Unlike last year (we missed Huge Bladen’s address) Howzit-HongKong.com attended the grand affair at the Football Club.

Needless to say, a great time was had by all and treu to form (pun intended) we closed the evening’s ‘verrigtinge’ and were the last to leave the venue.

The BlitzBokke were again great sports and we made the following video clip of some (all?) of them interacting with the guests. (below)

Hopefully next year Bruce Fowler will assign us a ‘better’ table.  (Other company excluded) Dawid Van der Sandt may be a well-connected cameraman… but he’s not the friendliest person around. Nuff said.

While the HSBC Sevens World Series is taking a wee break after the Hong Kong & Adelaide tournaments, I have some more time to sort through all the media collected during that week of rugby and party madness.

In the meantime I am also finding some great images taken by media colleagues at the 2011 Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens.

Below are some images from an outfit called Big Black Box.

The picture below is of Springbok Sevens coach Paul Treu and former player-turned-assistant-coach Vuyo Zangqa.

Click here to view BigBlackBox’s Sevens album, you may just see yourself in there somewhere!

After the conclusion of this year’s Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens, I was trawling the internet, when I came across some interesting tidbits about the Hong Kong Stadium.

When you read it you may, like me, wonder what the relationship is between the history of the Stadium site and that of the fortunes of our Springbok Sevens side at the Hong Kong Sevens.

Those of you who know Hong Kong will know about the famous Happy Valley Racecourse.

Run by the richest sports organisation in the world, the Course was built in 1845 to provide horse racing for the British people in Hong Kong.  (Hong Kong was a British colony at the time.)  It was established on swampland but as it was the only flat ground suitable for horse racing on Hong Kong Island the site was developed into a suitable, world-class racing track.

The Happy Valley Fire

However, on 26 February 1918 a huge fire broke out and at least 590 punters and workers perished.

Many of the bodies were buried in So Kon Po in Causeway Bay.

The remains were relocated in 1953 to Aberdeen on the other side of the mountain to make way for the Hong Kong Government Stadium with a capacity of 28,000.  Football in Hong Kong had some of it’s best times at this venue in the 60′s and 70′s.

In 1994 the Stadium was rebuilt into the current Hong Kong Stadium, capacity 40,000.

Venue of the world-renowned Hong Kong Sevens, many a team has had some memorable times at the Hong Kong Stadium.

However, for some, it has remained a burial ground.

As it was for the 1918 Happy Valley fire victims…

With the conclusion of third phase of the 2010/2011 HSBC Sevens World Series (Hong Kong and Adelaide), I have more time to sort through the gazillions of images and video clips from last weekend’s Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens.

One of the functions I attended in the run-up to the Sevens-weekend was the welcoming party for the Zimbabwean Sevens Team.

The function was held at my favourite Thai restaurant in the Wan Chai party-district, Nana Banana and was attended by the respective Consuls-General, Tembi Tambo (South Africa) and Paul Chikawa (Zimbabwe).

Naturally the food was great, the drinks flowed and the players entertained the guests with some of the team songs:

Then after the tournament (Sunday evening) the Zimbabwean team also entertained guests at the official Awards Dinner at the Marco Polo Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui:

Here are some images I took at Nana Banana:

Cheers Cheetahs! See you at the 2012 Hong Kong Sevens.

As Howzit Online Media I run two blogs: BlitzBokke.com as well as Howzit-HongKong.com, my account of a South African’s life on this side of the noodle-curtain.

As such I have been posting about the Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens on both blogs.

People have been mailing me asking about pictures and videos from the weekend’s mayhem I mean rugby, that I have decided to posted all of them in one page.

Keep you eye on this page though as I am still finding new pictures that I will be adding to the sets below.

Here then is a compilation of the pictures from the HK Sevens (and Rugby Week):

The unveiling of the Guinness-certified World’s Biggest Rugby Ball:

How the World’s Biggest Rugby Ball was made and transported to Hong Kong:

The Air Asia Hong Kong Beach 5s

Laureus brings together the Soweto Schools Rugby Programme (SSRP) and the BlitzBokke:

SAAHK Sevens Dinner with Morne Du Plessis and the BlitzBokke:

Rugby stars hold a coaching clinic with SSRP and Operation Breakthrough:

Hong Kong Sevens Day 1

Hong Kong Sevens Day 2

South Africans at the Hong Kong Sevens:

BlitzBokke at the Hong Kong Sevens