Hong Kong Sevens vs Covid-19: how tournament came back from brink to beat toughest opponent

From cancelled Sevens in 2020 and 2021 to an event proceeding under pandemic constraints, the Post recaps a testing three years
Fans at November’s tournament must wear masks, show a RAT result and obey gathering rules – but the Sevens has survived

Coronavirus Hong Kong

SCMP Sport

Published: 9:10am, 25 Oct 2022

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The legacy of Covid-19 will be clear for all to see when the 2022 Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens returns on November 4-6.

Holding the tournament after three years of Covid-related cancellations will bring some relief to the city, even if reminders of the pandemic are visible throughout.

Hong Kong Stadium will not be full, given the 85 per cent cap on its 40,000 capacity. Scanning a QR code on entry using the LeaveHomeSafe app and complying with vaccination requirements will make it a Sevens like none before it.

And spectators must show a photo of a negative RAT, marked with their name and the date and time, obtained that day.

This year, Sevens fans have been told to wear masks and follow Hong Kong anti-gathering regulations. Photo: AP

Food and drink may be bought on the stadium concourse and consumed in one’s seat. Face masks must be worn at all times when not refuelling, and in the stands people must remain in groups of 12 or fewer, in line with anti-gathering rules.

If a Covid Sevens sounds a little compromised, no Sevens left a considerable void.

It was in February 2020 that the emergent coronavirus first cursed the tournament, as its 45th edition was postponed from April to October – the first time it had not gone ahead in spring since it began in 1976. Even the Sars outbreak had not thwarted it in 2003.

Covid-19 had caused 1,300 deaths, most of them in China’s Hubei province. By what would have been Sevens weekend, that had become 60,000 worldwide. As Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU) chief executive Robbie McRobbie put it at the time: “We are living in a fast-changing world.”

Relieved to avoid a complete cancellation, the HKRU was still left with the task of shifting the moving parts to the autumn, in conjunction with the government, the tourism board and suppliers in mainland China where factory production halted while the outbreak was contained.

As sporting bodies’ resources shrank, the October date, too, began to look optimistic. “We wouldn’t go under, and in six months’ time there is another Sevens,” McRobbie said that summer. “We would survive.”

October was indeed ruled out at the end of June when World Rugby cancelled the rest of the 2019-20 World Series, and the moving target shifted to April 2021. It moved again in December 2020, with Hong Kong battling a fresh wave of infections, vaccines yet to arrive and a delay being agreed from April to November 2021.

This time the union expressed relief, saying “the later on we are in the year, the greater chance we can put on an event with fewer restrictions”. Moreover, the stadium needed to be at least 50 per cent full to make it commercially viable.

Fast-forward to August 2021 and its reaction was one of “huge disappointment” as the year was written off altogether because of the Delta variant and travel restrictions.

“We left the decision as late as we could,” McRobbie said then. “Once you hit 90 days [before the event] you’re in the realm of having to pay very significant deposits on hotels and flights.” He added: “[April 2022] is our big focus now.”

A fifth postponement, to November 2022, followed before this year even arrived, amid uncertainty over when Hong Kong’s borders would reopen. Commissioner for Sports Yeung Tak-keung also voiced concerns that rugby players “have very close contact during the matches so it’s not easy to manage infection risks”.

The HKRU warned that the longer sporting events could not be staged, the greater the possibility of them disappearing for good.

But in March this year came positive noises as Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said a business conference would take place in November along with the Sevens.

With the city under some of its strictest regulations yet, after an Omicron outbreak – including local sport being mothballed with its venues closed for months – the way forward remained unclear.

As of June, a “closed loop”, like that used for the Beijing Winter Olympics, looked to be the answer. Players, coaches and hospitality and stadium workers would have to stay in designated hotels before, during and in some cases after the event.

Hong Kong Sevens launch: details emerge on tickets, teams and stadium food

Time was running short to deliver it, and the union set a deadline of the end of July for government approval, without which it would cancel for a third year. On July 30, the government granted it.

Fans were to be allowed in, and permitted to drink but not eat.

Momentum gathered with a tournament launch at the stock exchange on the very day the city’s leader, John Lee Ka-chiu, announced a relaxation of quarantine rules that would render the closed loop largely redundant.

Only 16 men’s teams would play across the usual three days, with tickets priced at 2019 levels. Dialogue about food would drag on until, with a fortnight until kick-off, the government allowed its sale inside the ground.

“With three days of food, drink, music and plenty of thrilling sevens rugby on offer, the atmosphere inside the stadium is guaranteed,” McRobbie said.

The Covid Sevens? Perhaps. But an event of global renown is on the way back. Starved of action since 2019, Hong Kong is finally set to feast.