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SCMP Reporter

She has been wooed and proposed to, cursed and roundly scolded. She is used to that. It is part of her job being the butt and the envy of the public in Hong Kong and all over the world.

  In the eye of the rugby typhoon which hits Hong Kong next week is Beth Coalter, one of the best-known women in the game.

   Stylishly wearing her two hats as tournament co-ordinator of next weekend's Rugby World Cup Sevens and administration manager of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union, Coalter is in the thick of the action once again as the territory gets set for its annual feast of rugby.

   Belfast-born Coalter, 46, has seen it all and done it all having been involved with local rugby for the past 10 years. Nothing can faze her today, or so she thinks.

   She has had flowers sent to her and offers of marriage from punters wanting tickets when the Hong Kong Sevens were first sold out back in 1990.

   She has climbed on the stadium roof in blinding rain to take down the cherished Barbarians flag and then watched from those dizzying heights one of the most memorable cup finals when Fiji seemingly walked on water to defeat New Zealand in 1992.

   She has even harboured the hope that Ireland would one day win the Cup. 'Even if I had the wish, I would change nothing in my life . . . hmmm, maybe just hope that the Irish would do better,' laughs Coalter.

    A yearning to do 'something different' led Coalter to apply for a job at the Hong Kong Rugby Union back in 1987 - when the concept of a World Cup for sevens was not even born.

    'I wanted a job which was different . . . not a nine to five job. I saw the post of administration secretary at the rugby union advertised in the newspaper and decided to give it a go,' she recounts. She landed the job.

   In those days, the rugby union was housed in a dingy little room at the top of Watson's Estate in North Point. Everything, from the bar to the solitary fax machine, was under one roof. The noise of drunken rugby types mingled with the clatter of Coalter's typewriter.

    'It was only me in the office at the time. I was the only one paid. The rest of rugby was run by volunteers. We used to rely solely on them . . . they were so keen. It was very homely those days,' Coalter says with more than a hint of nostalgia.

   The memories of yesteryear accompany Coalter today, as she and a dozen or more full-time staff run the rugby union's multi-faceted development programme, the day-to-day local season and many international commitments from its offices at the plush Sports House premises - right next to the Hong Kong Stadium where the Sevens action kicks off on Friday.

   Rugby in Hong Kong is a multi-million dollar business today - thanks to the Hong Kong Sevens, widely regarded as the most popular tournament in the world. Players love it.

  Legendary Wallaby winger David Campese once labelled it as the best tournament in the world. The World Cup Sevens, the second of its kind (the inaugural tournament was held in Murrayfield, Scotland in 1993), was born on the success of the Hong Kong Sevens.

  Once the International Rugby Board realised that here was an event which could be milked for all it was worth, on top of providing an enjoyable tournament, it was just natural that a World Cup Sevens would be held.

     'Yes the Hong Kong Sevens has played a major role in the decision to have a World Cup. If there were no Hong Kong Sevens, then there would be no World Cup,' says Coalter.

   'The Hong Kong Sevens is a unique tournament and I guess part of that success is because of the support we have had from the Hong Kong public. This is why we will always try and look after them.'    Looking after the public means seeing that one of the most valuable commodities in Hong Kong sport - tickets for the Sevens - are made available to them.

    'We must be the only place in the world where tickets are sold to the general public and they should count themselves lucky.'    The public might not think so as they scrummage for tickets each year.

    It was on the Sunday of the 1989 Hong Kong Sevens that, for the first time, tickets were sold out. In the following year, it was decided that tickets would be sold beforehand.

   When all the tickets on sale at sponsors Cathay Pacific and Hongkong Bank went in double-quick time, the more cannier members of the public decided to home in on the rugby union office.

   'I remember walking to work that morning and finding a long queue stretching all the way out and round the block. We had to limit tickets to two per person and still there were a lot of disappointed people.'     Soon after a rugby fan from the Gulf sent her a big bouquet of red roses and offered to marry her.

   But the ardent suitor was way too late as Coalter was already happily married - to Bill Coalter, a rugby referee and policeman.

   It was thanks to Bill that Coalter arrived in Hong Kong in 1974. 'An Irish paper ran an ad calling for people to join the Royal Hong Kong Police and see the world. Bill applied and we came here.'    The buildup to the most prestigious international sporting tournament hosted by Hong Kong will see Coalter having to look into every minute detail, from the comforts of the players to pampering the corporate fat cats.

   She fondly remembers the days when the players would be satisfied with just eating sandwiches and drinking copious amounts of vegetable soup at the old Hong Kong Stadium.

   With the advent of the professional era in rugby union, attitudes have changed.

   'On offer next weekend will be a day-long buffet where everything from fresh fruit salad to pasta, and muesli bars will be available.'   Players are also a lot more finicky when it comes to personal hygiene.

   'In the old days they used to change where they were sitting in the stands. It was common to see players, especially the Scots, walking around in their jockstraps.

  'Today we provide changing room facilities and we have attendants to draw up a roster so that players from opposing teams don't meet each other in the showers.'   On the corporate hospitality side, Coalter will have to see that the VIPs are given right royal treatment. Like, for instance, when she had to make sure that the King of Tonga had a special chair to accommodate his royal bottom.

   Royalty and commoners from that part of the world certainly don't come in small sizes.

   'When Jonah Lomu first came to Hong Kong, we had problems with his bed. The hotel had to extend the bed by adding on an extra bed.'    Like everyone else involved in the administration of rugby in Hong Kong, Coalter is content when she looks back at what has been achieved.

  'Yes, it is hard work. But there is a deep sense of satisfaction when at the end of it all, you realise you have achieved something.'   When the traditional players dinner is held next Sunday night at the Furama Hotel, and players from Australia to Zimbabwe settle down in their chairs, Coalter will know her job has come to an end.

  'But we have already started planning for the 1998 Hong Kong Sevens . . .' 



Queen of the Sevens' world