HONG KONG—The participating teams and format of the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2015, to take place on March 27/28/29, celebrating the 40th occasion of the Hong Kong Sevens event was announced by the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union (HKRFU) today (Friday Jan 23).
This year the tournament will be bigger than ever with 16 international teams in the HSBC Sevens World Series competition, 12 international teams competing in the HSBC Sevens World Series qualifier competition for a chance of promotion to the international series in 2015/2016 and 12 international teams taking part in the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Women’s Sevens.
In addition to the main tournaments the HKRFU is reported to be planning to hold many Rugby invitational, club and youth events around Hong Kong to add interest in what has generally become known as Rugby Week.
HKRFU announced that to accommodate the extra matches the competition will start earlier than usual commencing at 1.00pm on Friday March 27 running through to 9.00pm. The competition continues on Saturday March 28 from 9.00 until 7.30pm and on Sunday March 29 action starts at 9.30am.
Teams in the Hong Kong Sevens World Series Competition are: South Africa, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, England, Samoa, USA, Wales, France, Canada, Portugal, Kenya, Japan and Belgium – The 15 core teams are listed according to team ranking’s after completion of the first 3-legs of the series in Australia, Dubai and South Africa. Belgium is invited by World Rugby to take part in the HSBC World Series core team competition in Hong Kong.
Teams in the HSBC Sevens World Series Qualification competition are: Hong Kong, South Korea, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Guyana, Mexico, Uruguay, Brazil, Russia, Spain, Papua New Guinea and Tonga – listed by region.
The tournament draw will take place on February 16, 2015.
