Welcome to Hong Kong Sevens

The world's premier Rugby Sevens Tournament was born over pre-luncheon drinks at the venerable old Hong Kong Club on a misty spring day in 1975. The Chairman of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union, an amiable South African entrepreneur, "Tokkie" Smith, was talking with tobacco company executive Ian Gow. It was Gow's idea, as Promotions Manager for his firm, to sponsor a Rugby Tournament featuring top teams from around the world. Today, that tournament has become the gem in the IRB Sevens World Series and has been the Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens since 2004.

On March 28, 1976, less than a year after Tokkie Smith and Ian Gow shared a glass, club teams from Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Japan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Fiji participated in the first Hong Kong Sevens Tournament.

As the Tournament grew throughout the 70's and 80's in both supporter popularity and the number of participating teams, the standard of the teams had also risen from club sides to National representative teams.

By the beginning of the 90's, demand for tickets had far outstripped the capacity of the stadium that had been the Tournament's home for 12 years. The stadium was rebuilt in 1994 into the striking, 40,000-seat Hong Kong Stadium that is used today.

The Hong Kong Sevens Tournament is now considered the "Jewel in the Crown" of the International Rugby Board's World Sevens Series - 34 years after the Hong Kong event first started, the event continues to grow in popularity with both spectators and players.