In today’s edition:

• Back to the future

   

• One too many

   

• What’s on where

There is really only one subject that makes sense for this weekend’s newsletter, and it’s likely to dominate the sporting headlines in the city for the next week or so.

Yes, it’s time once again for the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, now entering its 50th year as the three-day party where games of rugby occasionally break out to interrupt proceedings.

Although, it’s not just three days and hasn’t been for some time. The action is already under way at Football Club in this weekend’s youth 10s tournament, and the seniors will have had their go at Sports Road before we even get to Kai Tak.

Even then, it will not be the first rugby played at the sports park this week, with the wheelchair version making its debut in the city.

And then there is racing, which is joining the festivities in Happy Valley for the first time. And with a combined focus this week, Hong Kong’s teams will be named during an event at Sha Tin Racecourse on Sunday.

None of which covers the panel discussions, the meetings, the lunches and the business that will be conducted over the next eight days.

It’s fair to say sevens, in the city at least, has progressed far beyond the 1976 version in almost every way, which is what makes the state of the sport itself such a shame.

This year’s edition is the first leg of the new World Championship – find me 10 people in the stadium on Friday who know that, or indeed care, and I’d be surprised.

Similarly, how many people know that South Africa’s men and New Zealand’s women won the HSBC SVSN Series in New York last month? Not that those titles actually mean anything this season, because everything resets for the World Championship, which after next weekend heads to France and Spain.

How many could name the top try scorers, or even the best players in each team, or, the best player in the world – now that Antoine Dupont has returned to his day job.

Hong Kong, meanwhile, will again play second fiddle at their own tournament, although given the above, does that matter? For many in the city, the deeply unloved Melrose Claymores competitions could even be more important than what the Springboks and Kiwis get up to.

Indeed, given sevens now stands alongside many other Olympic events in the global consciousness, in that it is only worthy of more than passing interest once every four years, there is an argument for Hong Kong to reclaim the sport from World Rugby and go it alone.

Especially considering the insult that is making the game’s greatest sevens tournament just the first leg in the confected World Championship.

There is more prestige and tradition associated with winning in Hong Kong than anywhere else, no matter what the global governing body might want to be true, and it has been that way for the better part of 50 years.

It can be for the next 50 too; but it needs a return to its 20th century roots, when the best were invited to showcase their skills in a city that was mixing sport and entertainment long before ‘sportainment’ became the latest awful buzz word from marketers believing they were reinventing the wheel.

Josh Ball

News Editor, Sport & Racing

One too many

Who knew that good football matches in Hong Kong were like London buses. You wait years for one to come along and then all of a sudden you have three at once.

Unlike in England’s bustling capital, however, there is a sense that the third of August’s arrivals – the clash between Bayern Munich and Aston Villa – might be one too many.

Certainly the Kai Tak Stadium pitch could do without the increased traffic over the week, and what of the Bayern and Villa players who will be expected to perform on a surface that has occasionally struggled to adequately deal with 90 minutes of football, let alone 270.

There is also the fact the clash is not actually part of this year’s Football Festival involving Manchester City, Chelsea, etc, although who could blame the organisers for trying to ride on the coattails of an event that involves genuine heavyweights of the game.

What's on where this weekend

What’s on where this weekend

• Honestly, more rugby than you can shake a stick at. The action is already under way at Football Club in the youth 10s, which runs on Saturday and Sunday, and the senior tournament at the same venue, now three days not two, begins on Tuesday with women’s matches. Tuesday morning also heralds the start of the wheelchair version at Kai Tak Arena, with the 5s tournament finishing on Wednesday afternoon. All of which is merely an appetiser for the main course, which as always starts on Friday.

   

• If all goes according to plan, Kitchee will celebrate winning the Hong Kong Premier League after their game against Rangers at Tseung Kwan O on Sunday. That 6pm kick-off is the last of five fixtures this weekend, which starts with Eastern District hosting Tai Po at 3pm today at Siu Sai Wan Sports Ground. Tonight’s encounter has Eastern taking on whipping boys Football Club at Mong Kok Stadium at 6pm. A 3pm double-header on Sunday sees Kowloon City face Southern in Sham Shui Po, while Lee Man must beat North District away otherwise Kitchee will be crowned champions without kicking a ball.

   

• Once the naming of Hong Kong’s sevens teams has taken place in Sha Tin, normal service will resume on Sunday with a standard race day, and Harry Bentley fans will fancy their chances of picking up a little extra spending money, with the British rider looking at several strong chances to win. The action begins with the Bowring Plate at 12.30pm.