Thanks once again to my friend’s genius, I was able to get into the Hong Kong Stadium to watch the Rugby Sevens for most of Sunday! And it was much, much better than Friday. The stadium was packed full, almost all the seats were taken and the crowds were wild.
I was supporting Russia and was really amazed and ecstatic that they won the Bowl by beating France in the final. I was sitting at the top of the East Stand in an area crowded with a lot of French singing things like “Stand up if you hate the French” and go Russia. I joined in and cheered for Russia. Once the team won, I rad down to the ground level of the East Stand and got to shake one of the Russian player’s hands and talk to him. The Russian team was also really happy and celebrated a lot. Russia won 21-7.
After the Bowl final, it was time for the Plate final between Wales and Argentina. Both teams played well but Wales came out as the winner in the end and I got two autographs from players I don’t even know.
The grand finale of the Sevens was the Cup Final where the multiple-time Hong Kong Sevens champions Fiji took on the Samoans. When I just first saw the Samoans playing on Friday evening I knew they were going to go far and they went all the way. The Samoans dominated the first half by scoring four tries and the Fijians looked like they were out of it. But after halftime the Fijians just started coming back.They managed to score three tries with little time remaining, scoring two tries just a couple of minutes apart. The final score was 27-22 with Samoa the new HK Sevens champions but I must say that Fiji dominated the second half and if they were given maybe two minutes more may have even won the game.
After the finals, there was a closing ceremony with fireworks and everything and in total about a dozen people ran onto the field at different times on that Sunday evening. Some were caught by the guards but others were lucky and escaped. It was hilarious to watch the guards trying to tackle the big foreigners and sometimes more than three guards were needed to control one fan.
Going to the Sevens is something spectacular and I’ll definitely be going there again next year. The atmosphere is something that can’t be experienced anywhere else in Hong Kong and even after the hordes of people came out of the stadium, many were still singing “Hey Baby” all the way to the MTR.
The Sevens is the shit!
Tags: 7s, hong kong, rugby, sevens
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