So off to Manilla tomorrow for the Manilla Nomads Tens, Back Monday, off day Tuesday, then Wednesday is Kowloon Rugbyfest at Kings Park, and Thursday is possibly the highest quality rugby Tens competition in the world at Hong Kong Football Club… and then the climax, the 2010 Hong Kong Sevens. This year as one of the stadium announcers I have managed to enlist the other boys in our own wee tribute to Bill McClaren, so if you hear someone saying: “He kicked that like a pound of Haggis,” or, “They’ll be singing down in Wanchai tonight,” that is our tribute.
I love the contradiction of the Sevens, people travel from all over the world to have a weekend blackout. And when they come too, they know they had a party, they just can’t remember any of it. There was a time when only stamina could see you through, drinking all night in Wanchai then heading to the Stadium at 7am to avoid the South Stand queue, not for the faint hearted.
And then around 1997 God invented Vodka Red Bull and suddenly 72 hour sessions were within reach of mere mortals.
Remember The Canny Man motto: “Everything in moderation, especially moderation!”
Let the party commence.
“I remember a big South Sea Islander saying that, in his view, the Hong Kong sevens were really the Olympic games of Rugby Union… The Hong Kong event captures all the really good things the game has to offer – splendid organization, wonderful sporting spirit, universal camaraderie, admirable field behaviour…” Bill McClaren RIP