Boots And All | Hong Kong Sevens fans could be April fools as World Rugby prepares to announce dates
Rugby fans could be playing the April fool next year when the Hong Kong Sevens is moved from its traditional last-weekend in March event date.
Rugby fans could be playing the April fool next year when the Hong Kong Sevens is moved from its traditional last-weekend in March event date.
World Rugby has taken ages to sort out the new schedule, but we hear it will be ready to make an official announcement towards the end of this month.
It will come as no surprise that Hong Kong and newcomer Singapore will be staged back-to-back in the first half of April 2016. Whether that means the first weekend (April 1-3) for Hong Kong remains to be seen.
The new calendar for the 10-leg Sevens World Series has been the worst-kept secret in rugby with the governing body releasing details in dribs and drabs, forcing individual tournaments to make their own declarations.The Australian Rugby Union was the first to jump the gun when it revealed its tournament will move from the Gold Coast to Sydney. You can’t blame the Aussies. They needed to put in place their marketing campaign and couldn’t wait until World Rugby got its act together.
It was a similar story for the other new venues – Paris, Singapore and Vancouver. While Paris and Singapore will replace Glasgow and Tokyo respectively, Vancouver is a completely new event. This allows organisers to band together two stops on the circuit, making it easier for the teams travel-wise as they will now play on successive weekends.
