Hong Kong Sevens

SW15 had its sporting event this weekend, the Boat Race. We would normally have been there, on the river bank, for the start at least. What you actually see is three seconds of the race as the rowers power past before staring at a dull grey empty Thames with thousands of other people similarly wondering why they came.

Hong Kong had its sporting event this weekend too, the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens. It starts on Friday afternoon and draws to a close on Sunday night: a long slog for those who are there to watch the rugby but tougher still for bodies battered by three days of binge drinking at the city’s biggest annual party.

On Friday afternoon it rained and the beautifully prepared pitch was churned up within minutes of the start. It’s rare to see grass in Hong Kong, even rarer to see mud. Players slipped and lost their balance but it all added to the entertainment. The rain could not dampen the spirits of the crowd, however, and the atmosphere was like a carnival. Jugs of beer and Pimms slopped about and the combined smells of sweat and fried food were all around.

The antics of the infamous South Stand where dressing up, wild dancing and heavy drinking are de rigueur were beamed up to the rest of us on huge TV screens. The more there are of you in matching silly outfits, the more likely you are to attract the cameras. And the more outrageous your get up, the better. Or the less of it there is. Bare-chested or big-breasted are enduring themes. We saw bands of nuns, Father Christmases, Miss Piggies, High Court Judges, cave men, belly-dancers and milk maids. There were Superheroes, Teletubbies and mankini-sporting Borats, kings in crowns and queens in drag.

The crowd is overwhelmingly Caucasian and when China played England the supporters were all for the English. That said, the stadium crowd loved the underdog and whenever a losing team made a dash for the try line there was huge excitement and a roar of support from the crowd. The best match of the tournament was when Kenya beat New Zealand and the Stadium erupted.

By Sunday everyone has probably seen enough rugby to last a lifetime and yet you have to be there as the rugby gets better and better as the giants of the game meet and fight it out in the fast-moving 14 minute games. I read somewhere that the Sevens game fits the Hong Kong pace of life and attention span. Bite-sized nuggets of the game with 14 fit and wholesome chaps running about in tight shirts certainly suited my attention span.

The atmosphere is intimate and fun. We recognised friends and stopped for a chat, read the Sunday papers and had another coffee. Paper aeroplanes are thrown from the upper stands and a cheer goes up if one makes it to the pitch. Dance music at half time and between games gets the punters on their feet. The occasional pitch invasion is met with rapture in the stands. A Pink Panther made a dash for it and a monk was tackled in jest by a Portuguese player. A grass-skirted limbo dancer complete with coconut shell bikini treated us to a bum wiggle before being received coldly by nonplussed Chinese guards on the touch line.

Our two older boys played showcase mini-rugby games in the Stadium on Friday and Sunday before the big boys came on and all three took part in the Parade on Sunday afternoon watched proudly by parents and sister. Over 3,000 4-12 year olds play mini-rugby at different locations around Hong Kong on Sunday mornings and most of them had not turned down the chance to be applauded by a full Stadium.

It felt good to belong in Hong Kong this weekend, to have an invitation to the ultimate party. I imagine the rest of Hong Kong was noticeably ex-pat free until the Stadium emptied its contents into the bars of Wan Chai each night. Not normally a huge fan of the game, I’ll admit to finding it all highly infectious. Despite the fact that the boys from home did not even make it to the semi-finals and HK was completely trounced by Canada we had a great time. Even our four year old turned to me during one game and said with gusto, “Mummy, this is a real football match, isn’t it?” Errm, almost.