We spent an entire weekend in Hong Kong Stadium watching rugby, as the world’s best teams (and several of the world’s mediocre teams) competed for the coveted HK Sevens Cup. England were the hot favourites, having won the Sevens for the last two years and the Rugby World Cup last year, but New Zealand are always highly fancied, and Argentina were looking good too. Of course, I was supporting New Zealand – it’s something to do with my genetic make-up. (Though I don’t usually wear make-up.)
Actually, I had another reason for hoping England wouldn’t win – their fans like to sing, and their enthusiasm is matched only by their tunelessness. And why do they choose “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” as their theme song? It has as much to do with rugby as it has with inorganic chemistry. I guess they’re not called the Barmy Army for nothing.
The Sevens rugby games are played by teams of seven, in two seven-minute halves. This makes for a pretty fast-paced game. The first day’s games were all “pool matches”, designed to sort the teams into grades for the finals. There were lots of one-sided games between big fish (NZ, England, Australia, South Africa, etc.) and minnows (Chinese Taipei [sic], Singapore, etc., and of course the hosts Hong Kong). There were quite a few scores in the 50-nil range, with no unexpected results.