FOR 57 years the French ruled Ivory Coast. When the colonial masters needed to while away their time on the sports field, one of the games they played was rugby.
And when the French departed in 1960, they left behind their language and the legacy of a great sport - rugby - to the new independent state of Cote D'Ivoire.
'We must be thankful for the French for teaching us this game. When we became independent in 1960, it was just natural that we continue to play a game that had been around our country for such a long time,' explains Benjamin Dakoury, the manager of the Ivory Coast team.
Making their debut at the Hong Kong Sevens, Dakoury explained through an interpreter that this weekend represents one of the biggest opportunities for his country to show off their rugby skills.
Unlike the rest of the teams participating here, little is known about Ivory Coast rugby - apart from the fact that last year, they shocked the entire rugby world by qualifying for the World Cup in South Africa by winning the qualifying group, which included heavyweights like Namibia, Zimbabwe and Morocco.
'But we have very little exposure on a true international scale. We play in an annual regional rugby tournament which takes in countries in West Africa like Senegal, Mauritania and Ghana, but the Hong Kong Sevens is truly different.' Rugby takes second place in the popularity stakes among the population of 11 million. Soccer, not surprisingly, is still number one.
