RUGBY SEVENS has always had a good origin story. It started with a handful of rugby-loving expats in Hong Kong, scraping together enough players to field a few makeshift teams and try out a faster, wilder version of the game they loved. Nobody involved could have guessed that decades later it would grow into a genuine global phenomenon, a tournament circuit that fills stadiums on every continent and draws crowds who couldn’t tell a scrum from a lineout but turn up anyway, because the Sevens experience has become about so much more than the rugby itself. This year marks 50 years since that very first tournament in 1976, and Cathay Pacific has been the driving force behind almost all of it. The airline sponsored that inaugural event and has backed the tournament for most of the five decades since, helping build it into the institution it is today.
I’ve travelled to New Zealand, Japan and England to watch the very best players go head-to-head at the Rugby World Cup, and each trip taught me something different about what these tournaments actually offer. There was the high of the 2015 tournament in England, a country that turned rugby into a month-long carnival, pubs overflowing, cities buzzing. Then came the heartbreak of following the tour through Japan, a tournament that delivered just as much emotion but through an entirely different lens: precision, hospitality, and a culture that embraced the sport with a quiet intensity all its own. What both trips taught me is that a World Cup isn’t really about the 80 minutes on the pitch. It’s a way to travel an entire country, whether you’re there for the food, the art, the sport, or simply the buzz of being somewhere new during a moment of national excitement. Both left me wanting more.
And then there’s the Hong Kong Sevens: one city, three days, non-stop, high-octane, fast-paced footy from morning until night. I’d heard the stories for years, the costumes, the noise, the sense that an entire city downs tools for a weekend just to watch rugby played at double speed. This year, I finally got to experience it for myself, in the place where the whole idea began.
Nothing quite prepares you for it. Where a Rugby World Cup unfolds slowly across weeks and cities, HK7s compresses all of that energy into a single stadium over a single weekend, and somehow it works even better for it. The rugby is relentless: matches finish almost as soon as they start, tries come from nowhere, and the crowd barely gets a chance to sit down between whistles. But the real spectacle, as any Sevens veteran will tell you, happens in the stands.
For first-timers, there are a few lessons worth learning before you land. Book early: tickets to the South Stand, the fancy dress, sing-along, party epicentre of the stadium, sell out well before the tournament kicks off, and the line to get in starts early and snakes out past the entrance for a long way. Get your costume sorted well ahead of time and coordinate with your group. Nothing beats a whole crew turning up in theme. The highlight this year was a group in giant inflatable octopus costumes, planted in the front row on day two, waving tentacles in time with every song that rang out over the stadium. They were in fine form when the Venga Boys hit the stage for the day’s entertainment. We were lucky enough to be brought down onto the field to watch, and they didn’t disappoint. The crowd was jumping, singing every word, and fully in the spirit of it.
By three-quarters of the way through the day, the joy at the top of the South Stand was at an all-time high, everyone up for a photo and a laugh, hunting down strangers in matching costumes who’d travelled from every corner of the world to be there. It’s absolutely worth venturing up to that part of the stadium. It might not fully replicate what the old ground had to offer, but it’s still an experience in its own right.
The East and West Stands offer a calmer view of the actual rugby, better suited to families or anyone who’d rather watch the sport than become part of the show. Even there, everyone was singing along and soaking up the atmosphere.
What struck me most, though, was how much the tournament felt like a distillation of everything I’d loved about following rugby around the world, except squeezed into one incredible, slightly chaotic long weekend.
That feeling isn’t unique to Sevens weekend, either. Australians more broadly are rediscovering their affection for Hong Kong, and the numbers prove it. Visitor arrivals from Australia jumped 20% across January to June 2026 compared with the same period the year before, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board, with around 267,000 Aussies making the trip in just the first six months of the year alone. It’s a clear signal that the city’s pull with Australian travellers, dimmed during the pandemic years, is roaring back to life.
Part of that comeback is down to Hong Kong shaking off its old reputation as a stopover, somewhere to break up a longer trip to Europe or the UK, and establishing itself as a destination in its own right. Much of that comes down to an events calendar that runs year-round. HK7s might be the loudest entry on it, but it’s far from the only one. Art Basel Hong Kong draws the global art world every March, and it genuinely holds its own against the art fairs I’ve chased around the globe. I’ve wandered the Venice Biennale, spent days gallery-hopping through New York, and lost myself in Tokyo’s art scene, and Hong Kong’s edition brings the same calibre of work and collectors, just with a distinctly Asian energy running through it. The Birthday of Tin Hau festival brings colour and tradition to the city’s fishing communities. Mid-Autumn Festival lights up Victoria Harbour with lanterns, and the nightly harbour light show is something else entirely: think Vivid Sydney, but turned up on steroids, with the entire skyline choreographed to music and colour rolling across the water. And a fast-growing food and wine scene has quietly become a drawcard of its own, giving travellers every reason to extend their stay well past a rugby weekend.
Between the festivals, the food, the art and a Sevens tournament still pulling in first-timers by the planeload, it’s easy to understand why Hong Kong is climbing back up Australians’ travel wish lists. I went in expecting three days of rugby. What I got was a three day festival of music, food and stories I’ll be telling until I make it back for another tournament. I’ve found myself recommending it to anyone who’ll listen, even the ones who have no idea what I’m talking about. If they don’t understand the rugby, they’ll definitely understand the culture and the food Hong Kong has to offer.
