The season-ending Blarney Stone Sevens had traditionally been a part of the game’s program in Hong Kong, but
HKRFU was affiliated to the
RFU and internationally the game was controlled by the rugby powers. The Scottish Centenary at Easter 1973 had been a recent international Sevens tournament but to which only the establishment countries were invited. The Hong Kong Sevens became established with the first staging in 1976. It was an original idea of Rodney Bentham-Wood of
Rothmans Asia - he wanted a 15 aside tournament but agreed a 7 aside tourney would be cheaper. A great deal of work between Vernon Roberts, Tokkie Smith, Bob Gaff and Mike Pratt and the two main sponsors, initially Rothmans and
Cathay Pacific at the time. Over a lunch between Tokkie Smith and Rodney Bentham-Wood of Rothmans, who originally wanted to do a 15 aside tournament, the concept evolved into the 7 aside tournament. Rugby sponsorship was just being introduced and
Tokkie ADC Smith, Chairman of HKRFU and worked with Ian Gow of
Rothmans Hong Kong to discuss the possibility of a sponsored international rugby tournament in Hong Kong. Tokkie Smith promoted the idea to his President Vernon Roberts and to the Rugby Union Committee but on account of numbers and costs it was decided that any sponsored international tournament would need to be Sevens. Jock Campbell of Cathay Pacific then offered to sponsor travel and the Committee led by President Vernon Roberts, Chairman Tokkie Smith, Treasurer Bob Gaff and Honorary Secretary Mike Pratt in 1975 made the decision to organize an international Sevens Tournament. Friendly rugby countries throughout Asia and the Pacific were invited to send teams, creating the multiracial tournament. The founding program announced: Rothmans-Cathay Pacific International Seven-a-Side Championship, 28 March 1976, at the Hong Kong Football Club, and the participating countries as , , , , , , , , , , and with as the Home Team. In view of the enormous success of the Sevens, the Rugby Union Committee determined to continue annually, and Tokkie Smith, still as Chairman, also managed the expanding tournaments in 1977 and 1978, establishing the series and changing rugby forever. This was an important step as this was one of the first rugby tournaments that attracted commercial sponsorship. Of the countries represented in the inaugural sevens tournament, only Australia and New Zealand did not send national sides, instead being represented by the Wallaroos and the Cantabrians respectively. These two clubs met in the final where the Cantabrians won 24–8. The series then grew into a competition with national representative sevens sides competing, and with this growth, the tournament moved to the
Hong Kong Stadium in 1982. The Hong Kong Sevens were ahead of their time, and an influential force in the modernisation of rugby union, for example, the Hong Kong Sevens were one of the first rugby union tournaments to attract major sponsorship, when Cathay Pacific sponsored the 1976 tournament. They also provided a level of cosmopolitan international competition, which tended not to exist in rugby before the first
Rugby World Cup in 1987, especially since was not seen as one of the "Big Eight", and other than some involvement with , the
Commonwealth teams tended to be notoriously clannish. By 1986, the Hong Kong Sevens were held up as a positive example to others: This Seven-a-Side international tournament is without a doubt the most spectacular, exotic, best organised Rugby competition of its kind in the world, and it has consistently produced the highest standard of Sevens Rugby seen anywhere. I was not surprised on my first visit to see quality play from the Australian, New Zealand, Fijian, and British players, but I was staggered at the amazingly high quality play produced by countries I never even knew played Rugby.
South Korea and
Western Samoa were every bit as good as
Japan and
Tonga. , and found their lack of sheer size and bulk an insuperable handicap, but against each other they displayed a range of running and handling skills which demanded unqualified praise. , and the were inevitably outgunned by the teams from the major Rugby-playing nations but they still have a remarkably high level of skill which promises well for the future of the game. The week of the Hong Kong tournament allows 24 Rugby-playing nations to intermingle for several days, and the huge cross-fertilisation of ideas can only be beneficial in the long term for the emerging nations. After the first day of the play when the top eight seeded teams meet the smaller fish in a pool system, the second day is divided into three different competitions... The strength of this great tournament is that on the opening day the most famous players in the world share a pitch with unknown opponents from countries where Rugby is a minority sport... While tournaments like the Hong Kong Sevens continue to be played, Rugby administrators can be confident that the game will continue to thrive in over 100 countries worldwide. However, despite this apparent diversity, some of the same old problems which had dogged international rugby were still manifest in the Hong Kong Sevens in the 1980s – for example, in a photograph of the v game at the tournament in 1984, the teams do not appear to include anyone who is ethnically Arabian or Chinese, instead both teams are quite clearly of northern European ethnic origin. In 1994, the venue was deemed too small for the tournament and was rebuilt into a 40,000-seat stadium now named the
Hong Kong Stadium. New Zealand were the dominant team in the mid 1990s, winning three straight from 1994 to 1996, led by legends
Eric Rush and
Jonah Lomu. Today, 24 national representative sides compete in the tournament. These include the 16 'core' members of the
IRB Sevens World Series, plus eight further invited teams. In 1997 and 2005, the Hong Kong Sevens was not held; taking its place was the Rugby World Cup Sevens, which Hong Kong hosted in both years. Fiji won both World Cup Sevens tournaments. In 1998, the first tournament after the
transfer of sovereignty to China, tickets were not sold internationally and the event was stricken with a bankrupt sponsor
Peregrine. The Union's Organising Committee worked hard, and successfully implemented its marketing strategy to get the local population involved through "Friday Night is Party Night" and secured
CSFB as sponsors "on a spur-of-the-moment", the event was a comparatively huge success. In 2011, after
HSBC negotiated title sponsorship to the entire World Sevens Series tournaments, it was no longer possible for
Credit Suisse to sponsor the Hong Kong leg after 14 years. == Format ==