New Zealand men and women both won first-place Cups at the Cathay Pacific HSBC Rugby Sevens on Sunday, April 7. In the finals, the New Zealand women beat the USA in a runaway victory of 36 points to 7, and the New Zealand men won a tight match against an equally competitive French team, 10 points to 7 points, in front of an almost capacity crowd of nearly 40,000.
In the Semi-finals, New Zealand women beat Australia 28 points to 14 points, and the USA won against France (19-5); in the men’s semi-finals, New Zealand beat Australia 26-7, and France won against Ireland 26-10.
Billed as the last Rugby Sevens event at the So Kon Po stadium after 30 years of tournaments, it was successful in drawing many Hongkongers and overseas Rugby enthusiasts to watch. Next year the tournament is planned to be held at the new stadium at the old Kai Tak airport location.
Contestants in the new style tournament introduced this year were reduced to 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams, with those finishing in places one to eight after the seventh event (Singapore) will play in the winner-take-all-final in Madrid. Four qualifier teams will join those teams in 8 to 12th place to decide the top four to play together with this year’s top eight teams in next year’s series.
In the women’s standings, after completing at Hong Kong, and with two events to be played (Singapore and Madrid), New Zealand and Australia are in equal first place with 106 points, France is in third place with 88 points, the USA is fourth with 82 points, and Canada is in fifth place with 72 points. The following three places are held by Fiji, Ireland, and Great Britain, leaving Brazil, Japan, the Republic of South Africa (RSA), and Spain currently below the cut-line.
In the men’s standings, Argentina is leading with 94 points, Ireland is second with 86 points, and Fiji is in third place with 76 points. These are followed by France (74), New Zealand (73), Australia (69), and RSA (58), with the USA in eighth place on 44 points. This leaves Great Britain, Spain, Samoa, and Canada currently below the cut-line.
The Singapore Sevens is scheduled for May 3 to May 5, and the Madrid finals are on May 31 to June 2.
