Rugby is set to make its East Asian Games debut when the event comes to Hong Kong in 2009.
Altogether six sports will be on the programme for the first time - rugby, cycling, squash, snooker, table tennis and windsurfing.
Although it is expected to be the sevens version of the oval-ball game, that has not been confirmed.
The six were on a list proposed by the planning committee to the council of the East Asian Games Association council during the latter's three-day meeting here over the weekend.
'We have proposed a list of 19 medal sports and two demonstration sports for the Hong Kong games in 2009,' the committee chairman, Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, said.
'The newly proposed sports are sports in which Hong Kong harbour good medal hopes as we need to be competitive as the host.