HK7s - 2009

Over the next three days, I will be updating this post daily so please drop by this space to find out the latest.

Friday morning:

Didn't get tickets. Didn't bother entering that scrum because Anthony said he could get us into a corporate box, and now he's in Paris or something so ... damn, damn, damn!

David A., who was also counting on that box, yesterday got last minutes tickets for today, and because I let him have mine last year, now he kindly keeps sending me text messages whenever he hears of some more available, but when I ring they're mostly already gone or they're asking, like, $800. for a day. Nope!

Especially nope because ... FRIDAY!!! Friday's the least wonderful day of all, mainly because it's a work day so folk don't turn up until after 6-ish and so you have to spend most of the afternoon without the silly-costumed-folk in the South Stand and watching such unequal play because all the Minnows are still in the competition.

Giants!
Fiji's flag waves proudly
over Causeway Bay.

Don't get me wrong. I love the Minnows and am so pleased they come each year, but, unless they're like that village team from Papua New Guinea who've never even been in a city before, or freaking out because they're being chased by penguins like what happened to Madagascar in 2007, I'm not really fussed about spending an entire day watching these little guys being defeated.

Besides, it's raining and miserably cold today and at least in Wan Chai I'll stay dry and warm.

So, ticket-less, it's down to the Devil's Advocate for me. And I'm off there now. My only problem is ...

... what to wear!

Friday Night:

Would you believe it? I called every game. Even when I wildly disagreed with the pundits, I still got it right. Damn! What a pity I didn't put money on it!

As usual, Devil's Advocate was fun. People even dress up to watch the live feed ...

... and the usual HK7s rules apply:

1) always be wildly partisan:

National dress is never too much!

2) cheer for HK.

3) cheer for the Minnows and scream and jump around excitedly if they even look like they're about to do something respectable, and scream yourself hoarse if they do anything remotely grand.

4) boo Australia.

I was sitting with a group of nice Swedes who didn't know the first thing about 7s (Sweden plays soccer, the whoozers!) (what with all that pickled fish, blond furniture and, shudder, soccer, no wonder they have the highest suicide rate in the world), but totally got into it so much they asked me how to go about hitting the English scalpers outside the stadium first thing tomorrow morning. (I told them HK$300. is the most they should pay for Saturday! Would that be right?)

I tell you, HK7s is definitely addictive. See one game and you're hooked. It really should come with a warning label.

Noticed the blue-heads waving Fiji flags in the crowd, so the Fiji supporters are back for another year:

Fiji's special North Stand Ladies!
On Sunday.

But you really want to know about the games, don't you! So, what went down:

Overall, starting out, Fiji isn't doing so well for 2009. We're coming fifth on points, so desperately need to do well in this part of the tournament if we're to get out of this slump.

Ahead of us is England 1st, South Africa 2nd, New Zealand 3rd (say what??), and Argentina 4th (say whhaatttt?). Isn't that a shock to the system! Argentina were Minnows last year.

Oh, and immediately behind us is Kenya!

The Kenyans on Sunday.

Big guys, huh! Five years ago, they were Minnows, but they've come from nowhere to be major contenders. I've been saying all along they could play, haven't I!

But you want to know about today's games:

In miserable and cold conditions ...

Kenya beat West Indies 17 - 10. Nice game! Kenyans are big, strong and fast, but the West Indians are sneaky, and some have dreadlocks too. Almost a winning combination.

Fiji beat Taiwan 33 - 0. And for a while it looked like Fiji had more dread-locked heads than West Indies, but turns out it didn't; Roko just got around a lot!

Roko on Sunday.

Argentina beat Hong Kong 28 - 0. Sad! At least Fiji usually has the good manners to let our guys get at least one try in front of the home crowd, but these Argentinans are sooo cute I'll forgive 'em. Remember how, last year, Wales fielded almost an entire team of Young Tom Cruises? Well, this year it was Argentina's turn to produce a team of lookalikes. NICE!!!

New Zealand beat Sri Lanka 59 - 0. Had so much fun spending the last of the tsunami relief money two years ago that they've been saving up ever since to come back. And here they were, sooo brutally defeated. Sad to watch, but Sri Lanka never gave up fighting so kudos to them. Oh, and the few times they got a run up, we all went wild. And I have to say, Sri Lanka beats even Fiji for having the longest surnames on the entire planet.

England beat China 45 - 0. And can you believe that Guinness now sponsors the Mainland Chinese team. Maybe that's because these Mainlanders all have Irish accents. No kidding. Seems China's players all went to boarding school in Ireland. Love it? And all the naughty folk watching kept calling out "Go, Ireland. Go, Ireland. Go, Ireland" to cheer them on.

And I dearly loved that all the Devil's Advocate folk were shouting "Go Fiji! Go Fiji!" whenever England scored. That's because Fiji's Damudamu and Drauniniu are now playing for England and they were the ones doing all the tries, and they were trying to peeve the English in our audience.

But then someone on the field knocked that English guy's teeth out and it didn't stop him for a second. Just spat them out and kept playing, and we all got very respectful of that "bulldog spirit" and didn't want to tease them anymore.

And since England has stolen a few of Fiji's major players, no wonder they're top of the 7s pile this year.

(By the way, on Sunday, I met a lovely guy - no names - who now plays 15s for England and I asked him why and he said that although his choice would be to only play for Fiji, he couldn't earn the sort of money he needed to get all his matagali out of poverty, so he was selling his god-given talent on the open market to pay for education for all the youngsters in his extended family. And good on him, I say!) (And it's undoubtedly the same with all the others!)

South Africa beat Korea 27 - 7. You should have seen it when Korea scored. It was beautiful. South Africa are major players and they didn't give away a thing. Pure game and brilliant play by some stroppy little guy called Kim Won-Yong. Fabulous score. And didn't we all scream ourselves hoarse.

And I'm not joking when I say that every player on Korea's team is called Kim. OK, I am joking. There are also a couple who are named Park!

And then came the Finals of the Women's 7s. Australia beat China 28 - 7. Gorgeous game with no quarter given. And I got really annoyed with all the men in the place - particularly the Irish guys at the next table - because they kept shouting "Lesbian" whenever a woman scored, but they did end up showing them some respect, because it was a really rough game and everyone could really play!

As for the rest of the games, Scotland beat USA 19 - 17, Samoa beat Canada 14 - 10, Tonga beat Portugal 17 - 5, Australia beat Zimbabwe 33 - 7, Wales beat Japan 14 - 5, and France beat Uruguay 23-5.

And then Wan Chai began filling up with the usual beery tidal wave of drunken prats, yobs, yoiks, lager louts and others of that ilk, so I ran away for the night. (Later: Thankfully, since there was a riot and a lot of folk were hurt! All Fiji's fault, they're saying!)

Tomorrow begins at 10.30 and, cock-eyed optimist that I am, I still hope to be at the stadium ... but ...

Saturday Morning

Ran away from the games to tell you the incredible news! Hong Kong won a game. And we're not talking a little win either. It was 26 to 7, against Portugal too and they're, well, not a team to totally sneer at.

Not at the stadium as you can see. Just watching the live feed in Lockhart Road. And I'm not calling the games correctly either. Glad I don't have money on it today, because yesterday must have been all beginner's luck.

But the games. So far today, US beat West Indies 17-7, Samoa beat Taiwan 56-0, We HKers beat Portugal 26-0 (Go us! Go us! Go us!)

And at this very moment I'm missing Australia walking over Sri Lanka, and undoubtedly I won't be back in time to watch Wales tromping Mainland China, and France stomping Korea ... no, maybe I'll go back to watch Korea. They're earning my respect. Gosh, those stroppy Kims can play!

Saturday Afternoon:

Gosh, Fiji made me cross. Did you see Roko just step back and let Canada score those first points? I know it was probably just a courtesy-try but it fired up Canada so much they started to play seriously well and really had Fiji on the hop there for a while. At half-time! Oh, the pain! The pain! Yes, the game finally fell to Fiji - 26-17 - but I think Fiji needs to rethink who they give their kindness to.

And what's going down with Roko's cute little pigtails? It doesn't look bad, sure, and when you're that big and tough no one likes to laugh at you, but ... don't you think he's taking "silly" up to the highest level?

Meeting Roko on Sunday.

(Double-click on the photo and tell me what you think? Cute, yes! But also silly?)

Scores so far? Australia beat Sri Lanka 56 to 14 or something. Wales beat China 19 -17 (sorry I missed that one since I hear it was a really fine game), France beat Korea 17 - 5 ... or is that the other way around? Didn't get back in time for that game but some Kiwi blokes recorded the scores for me in my absence and it could be his handwriting but it looks like Korea won. Didn't notice before so I'm going to have to check on that. If Korea won ... wow! I'm sorry I wasn't there to watch! (Later: No, Korea didn't win. Kiwi-guy just wrote the score down in the wrong space.)

And Kenya beat Scotland by heaps and heaps. And Fiji beat Canada by not nearly enough!

And I'm now going back to watch more:

Still Saturday Afternoon!

Had to let you know immediately! Hong Kong beat Tonga! Can you believe it? Hong Kong beat Tonga. Hong Kong beat Tonga! Oh wow! Trounced them too! Unbelievably WOW!!! Mind you, it was all that guy Keith Robertson!

Keith Robertson, Our New Hero.

Try after try! Today is a day that will become LEGEND! We became GIANT KILLERS!!! Go us! Go us! Go us!

Oh, and you know Jason? That Canadian guy who hates rugby in general and 7s in particular. Well, he just sent me a text saying he'd got free tickets and was currently watching the game at the stadium. You have no idea the depth of hatred I feel for him at the moment! It's just 40 different levels of WRONG!!!

(By the way, all Sunday Jason kept texting me about what was going down. Yes, he was watching live-feed. I tell you, this game really is addictive!)

Anyway, I surrendered and decided I had to be there at any price so rang someone also called Denise who I heard on the grapevine can't make tomorrow, and offered to buy her ticket. We're meeting later on tonight to do the deal. It's only one ticket, but, since getting tickets here is definitely "each man for himself", Keith, naturally, is on his own!

But it's the rest of the Saturday games you want to know about, so here's how they went down:

Argentina beat Tonga 22-17, New Zealand beat Zimbabwe 52-0, England beat Japan 50 - 0, South Africa beat Uruguay 53 - 0,

And Scotland beat West Indies 19 to 17 in a really fabulous game.

Then Canada beat Taiwan 22 - 7,

And that's when Tonga and Hong Kong went for it and, although I thought it was going to be sad to watch, WE WON!!! Yes! Us! We beat Tonga 14 - 12. Yayyyy!!!

Anyway, that's the latest. Gotta get back! See you later!

Saturday Night.

Just returned from meeting Other Denise and I indeed have myself a ticket. Keith still doesn't. Tee hee! Don't know anyone else who's going tomorrow but I'm sure to find lots of folk to befriend. It's always a chummy sort of event and Sunday is the friendliest day of them all.

And Fiji's in the Final too - Go Us! Go Us! Go Us! - even though it only drew with Samoa (12-12), which meant Samoa won on points since they got 56 to 0 against Taiwan and Fiji only got 33 to 0 against them.

But for the rest of the games:

Zimbagwe beat Sri Lanka 33 - 14,

West Indies Team

(The guys on Sunday, immediately breaking training after being knocked out of contention.)

And after that there was the Japan and China game which was so odd, I should tell you about it. See, although it was fine to have Irish-boarding-school boys represent China when playing Wales or Australia, but up against Japan, an old foe, China took it seriously and sent PLA soldiers to play ... but Japan still beat them 21-17.

Hey, here's something really hysterical: the Japanese 7s team is called "Cherry Blossoms". Isn't that right up there with Roko's cute pigtails.

Oh, and the really really funny thing was just how much the two players on each side who made the most tries looked like each other. Yup, Japan's Shuetsu Narita and China's Jun Yang looked like separated-at-birth twins.

And if that wasn't astonishing enough, the very next game - Uruguay and Korea - the big scorer from Korea, Kim Sung Soo, was yet another of them. Separated-at-birth triplets!

Meeting Kim Sung Soo on Sunday.

That game, which wasn't bad at all, Korea did win. 35 - 10!

Then Kenya trampled USA 19 - 12. And then it was Fiji and Samoa, which I really don't want to talk about again! Oooh, the pain! The pain! Why do they put us through that!

Then Argentina beat Portugal (just like us!!! Hey, did you know we Hong Kongers stomped Portugal?! Like stomped them deep into the ground! Yaayyyy! Go us!) but I didn't record the score so I can't tell you by how much.

Then New Zealand beat Australia 17 - 5, which was especially humiliating since there seemed to be only Zar Lawrence and Tomasi Cama playing for the Kiwis. Honestly, it really looked like NZ was playing with their hands behind their backs because they really only needed two players to win the entire game! Show offs!

And then a fabulous game between England and Wales, 26 - 17, followed by South Africa defeating France by heaps and heaps, and the best bit of that game was seeing Gordon Tietjens wearing this "Rugby France" T-shirt and watching the game with total focus and deep intensity and I'm thinking "Gosh, why on earth is the Kiwi coach giving a damn about France's game? It's not even like France is in their league!" before I remembered ... two more separated-at-birth twins: Kiwi coach Gordon and French coach Thierry Janeczek!

So, that's the second day.

And tomorrow, yayyy!, I'm at the stadium! Naturally, I'll have to wait until tomorrow night before telling you what's what, since there are no cybercafes in the vicinity.

I'll be the one cheering loudly for Fiji ... even if I am very cross with them at this juncture. Honestly, you can't take us anywhere!

Sunday Night:

Since I took 713 photos, I'm intending to include heaps when I tell you what went down on the last day on the tournament, but it's just so very difficult putting in new image into a post when you've already got a lot ... so, I'm going to start a new post to tell you all about the most fabulous, amazing, gorgeous day today turned out to be ...

Oh, and I intend to put a lot of these photos onto Picassa where you can download them for free, so please do help yourself to any of the ones you like and want. I'll put a link in here when it's done, only it won't happen tonight.