Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022: India, Malaysia and Qatar show interest but two big events is too much for Hong Kong
- Hong Kong Rugby Union says it is not practical to host two major tournaments in the same year
- World Rugby says record level of interest proves that sevens can help spread the rugby gospel in emerging countries
India, Jamaica, Malaysia and Qatar are among a record 11 countries expressing interest in staging the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens – but two-time hosts Hong Kong have decided against bidding for the event.
World Rugby hailed the unprecedented level of interest in the tournament, saying it was a strong endorsement of the sevens format – especially in emerging rugby markets.
For Hong Kong, though, being part of the HSBC World Sevens Series means the local union are unable to host two major international sevens tournaments in the same year.
“On the two occasions we hosted the World Cup we didn’t have a regular Hong Kong Sevens that year,” Hong Kong Rugby Union chief executive Robbie McRobbie said. “Nowadays there isn’t that option, so we’d need to run two sevens tournaments in a short space of time, which isn’t practical.”
Hong Kong hosted the second World Cup in 1997 and also the 2005 edition – both won by Fiji. The last Rugby World Cup Sevens was held in San Francisco, United States, and was hailed as a resounding success as New Zealand took the men’s and women’s titles.
The Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens is traditionally held in the first or second week of April and, by 2022, it will also stage the men’s and women’s World Series tournaments.
The World Cup is scheduled for September or October 2022, which means the union would have six or seven months between tournaments. The event will again comprise 24 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams and will be played over three days in one venue.
Hong Kong’s stance appears to be shared by most of the cities on the 10-leg World Series circuit with only France and South Africa expressing an interest in the 2022 event. Also in the running are Argentina, Cayman Islands, Germany, Tunisia and inaugural 1993 hosts Scotland.
“Rugby World Cup Sevens is a major event on the global sporting calendar, a fan and team favourite and is an attractive proposition for unions and cities as a low investment, high-return event that is great for the city and great for rugby,” said World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont.
“We are delighted with the record level of interest. With a core objective of growing the global rugby fan and participation footprint, it is superb to see new interest from emerging rugby nations, which is great for the sport.
“We now move forward to a detailed phase of consultation and evaluation against set operational, team, fan and legacy criteria before the World Rugby Council selects the 2022 host at the interim meeting in Tokyo in October.”
The interested unions have been served bid documents by World Rugby and need to respond by July 16. The governing body will select the winner on October 29.
Beaumont said the tournament offers significant economic benefits to the host city, as seen in San Francisco where around 100,000 fans turned up over three days in July last year.
“Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 attracted a record attendance for a rugby event in the USA of 100,000, generated a record domestic broadcast audience of more than nine million and showcased the very best of San Francisco and rugby to a global broadcast audience in 224 territories,” he said.
“Research conducted by Nielsen Sport confirmed that the tournament generated a US$90.5 million economic contribution to San Francisco, so it was groundbreaking on every level.”
