Three more high-end games have been added to the Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens next year after a new points system was announced yesterday for the 2009-10 IRB World Series.
The losing Cup quarter-finalists, who disappear before the traditional march-past on Sunday, will now be in action later in the day in the Plate semi-finals. The Plate winner will now get double the points (16) formerly given to Cup quarter-finalists.
The new format will result in a new competition, the Shield, at next year's tournament for the minnows.
Gordon Tietjens (pictured), New Zealand's eight-time IRB World Series-winning sevens coach, welcomed the move, saying: 'This is a good idea. In the past, if you lost in Hong Kong in the Cup quarter-finals, as we did this year, it leaves you with a huge task of making up lost ground in the series and catching the Hong Kong Cup winners.'
The Hong Kong champions get 30 points, the most on offer at all eight legs of the series.
'What it means is the Plate becomes the Bowl, and the Bowl becomes the Shield so as to make room for these three extra games for the losing Cup quarter-finalists,' said Warrick Dent, Hong Kong Rugby Football Union's head of commercial, communications and events.
'Hong Kong is still very much the jewel in the crown,' he said. 'What the IRB has done is to reduce the [points] disparity between us and the rest of the legs. The changes will also mean the fans here get more opportunity to see the bigger teams on the last day.'
