Hong Kong Sevens

This past weekend was the Hong Kong Sevens.  For those of you who know very little about rugby (like me) this is a huge rugby tournament.  It is called the Sevens because there are seven players on the field for each team.  Typically rugby is played with 15 players on the field.  The Sevens is a much faster version of the game.  Teams come from all over to play in the tournament.  On the day Dave and I went we saw USA, South Africa, Samoa, France, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Argentina and Scotland play.  There were 16 teams in all.  This year New Zealand won the tournament.

The tournament takes place over three days; Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  People come to Hong Kong from all over the world.  Many people say this is an expat event, however we did see a good amount of locals there.  People equate it to the Super Bowl in the U.S.  If you ask me, it's more like a 3 day long college football game between two big rivals.  The tickets aren't as expensive as the Super Bowl, everyone is in a constant state of drunkeness and many people dress up in "costumes".  When the games are done for the day they all venture into LKF (Lan Kwai Fong, the club district) for more drinking.

PJ attended the games on Friday and Saturday with friends.  Saturday he went dressed as a minion (Despicable Me).  The costumes ranged from innocent ones like that to flight attendant costumes that even my 16 year old son said were "inappropriate".  I can only imagine what they looked like:)  PJ had an absolute blast.  He said it was the most fun sporting event he'd ever attended.  That surprised me considering the Army/Navy games he's attended.

Dave and I went for awhile on Sunday.  It was fun and I will say I did pick-up on the game pretty quickly.  The most exciting game we saw was the U.S. vs. South Africa.  The U.S. was down 24-0 and came back to make it 24-19.  In the last play of the game they came within 5 yds of tying the game.

Just like most stadiums, there are different sections of the stands in which you can sit depending on what you want.  The south stands are the party stands.  They fill quickly and then a queue forms for people wanting to get in as others leave.  The east and west stands are considered the "family stands".  No drinking is allowed in these stands (therefore the concourses fill up) and this is where you sit if you want to watch the games.  The north stands allow drinking, but are not quite as rowdy as the south stands.

Here are a few pictures courtesy of PJ: