Hong Kong’s own Kenzo Pannell (right), Rowan Varty and Mark Wright (below) are currently plying their trade in the Japanese corporate rugby league as part of the Toyota Jido Shokki Shuttles.

RugbyAsia Channel has maintained close links with the Hong Kong Boys while they are honing their skills abroad and put together this ‘exclusive’ video from within (video below):

The Springboks’ last minute loss to the Wallabies in the hosts’ final Tri-Nations encounter on Saturday evening made the Sunday Morning Post‘s sports-pages on Sunday.

With Hong Kong again hosting the final Bledisloe Cup match in October this year (the previous such match took place in 2008) there is renewed interest in the Southern Hemisphere’s premier competition, the Tri-Nations.

In fact, with Hong Kong Bledisloe Cup ticket sales reported to be sluggish this year (in part due to the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand next year) the Hong Kong rugby authorities are pinning their hopes on the Wallabies beating their Trans-Tasman opponents in next week’s final Tri-Nations encounter.  This, they hope, would make the third-ever Bledisloe Cup to be played on neutral ground more of a contest with the All Blacks having totally dominated the Tri-Nations this year.

Arch-rivals Japan stormed back from a 17-0 deficit to defeat Hong Kong 22-17 in the Cup quarterfinals of the 2010 Shanghai Sevens today.

The victory continues a grim losing record for Hong Kong who has lost their last four outings against the Asian powerhouse – twice in the regional sevens competition last year, in the gold medal final at the East Asian Games and on the second day at the Hong Kong Sevens in March.

Hong Kong head coach Dai Rees refused to be downhearted by the loss to Japan and firmly believes the two sides remain potential rivals for the coveted gold medal at the Asian Games in Guangzhou in November.

“At the end of the day, we are still the top two teams in Asia,” Rees said. “But the curse continues, our losing streak against Japan goes on. We played very well, but against a side like Japan, you have to nail that one per cent and we didn’t do that today.”

Hong Kong scored three early tries to take a 17-0 lead. They could have gone ahead 24-0 but a breakaway try was disallowed and they were called back for a scrum inside their 22. Japan won the scrum and scored a length-of-the field try just on halftime.

“That was a bit unfortunate as we could have put the game beyond them,” Rees said. “Then the momentum swung their way soon after the break when we missed a tackle to concede a soft try.”

Meanwhile, South Korea sounded an early warning to their rivals that they will be a force to reckon with at the Asian Games in Guangzhou (China) when they successfully defended the Shanghai Sevens title on Sunday.

Korea overcame partisan support and a strong challenge from hosts China in the Cup final to emerge worthy 38-17 winners to win the first of two ranking events in the IRB Asian Rugby Sevens Series and also grab the early psychological high ground.

The victory will pour cold water on the theory that Korea are a spent force in Asian rugby circles, and will firmly establish their credentials as serious contenders for a gold medal at the Guangzhou Games in November.

Despite being relegated from the elite division in the HSBC Asian Five Nations 15-a-side championship earlier this year and finishing fifth at last month’s Asian Under-20 Championship, Korea showed plenty of bottle to ward off all challengers in Shanghai.

Back home we have the Chris Burger Petro Jackson Fund who looks after the needs of rugby players who suffered serious injuries playing the game.

The Chris Burger Petro Jackson Players’ Fund pays homage to two young rugby players who died playing the game they loved.

In 1980, Western Province fullback Chris Burger broke his neck and died in a Currie Cup match in Bloemfontein. This led to the founding of the Chris Burger Fund by then WP captain Morné du Plessis and his teammates. Petro Jackson, a young player from Kylemore in Stellenbosch, died during a match in 1989, prompting (the pre-unity body) SARU to establish a similar fund in his honour. In 1992, the two Funds were united to form the Chris Burger Petro Jackson Players’ Fund, as it is still known today in its 30th anniversary year. For more information on the Fund, click here

Locally, as far as we know, there is no such support for players who suffer serious injuries playing the game we all love.

Recently a local player called Ben Kende suffered serious spinal injuries while representing HK in U.20′s World Cup qualifiers.

This is when RugbyAsia Channel (RAC) stepped up. The online channel, who provides the latest television rugby action, news, games, interviews from grassroots to club and international teams from around Hong Kong and the wider Asia region, came up with a novel idea to produce Hong Kong’s very first Rugby Calendar. They roped in some of the Territory’s finest players, brought in a professional photographer and put together what promises to be a hit amongst rugby supporters and local lasses alike. Part of the proceeds from the sale of the calendar will be donated to Kende.

Click here to visit RugbyAsia Channel on YouTube

All Blacks star flyhalf Dan Carter should be fit to play in their Bledisloe Cup match against Australia in Hong Kong in October, New Zealand captain Richie McCaw said on Monday.

Carter underwent surgery last week on a long-term ankle injury after the All Blacks wrapped up this year’s Tri-Nations championship with a 29-22 victory over South Africa.

He had been troubled by the ankle for more than three months and it started to become more of an aggravation towards the end of the Super 14 competition.

“Obviously Dan will miss our next match but the plan is for him to be available for Hong Kong,” McCaw said in a tele-conference.  “I don’t know 100 percent but he should be all right.”

Carter, who broke the record for rugby union Test points earlier this month, will miss the All Blacks’ final Tri-Nations match against Australia in Sydney on September 11.

The Hong Kong clash is on October 30, ahead of a four-Test northern hemisphere tour that sees them play England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

Tickets for the Hong Kong Bledisloe Cup clash are available at HK Ticketing

For more information about the Hong Kong leg of the 2010 Bledisloe Cup, click here

(Source: Sport24)

As a recent convert to the exciting world of sailing, the news of the cancellation of this major sailing event in Hong Kong came as a big disappointment.

The World Sailing Teams Association, Louis Vuitton and the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club (RHKYC) have announced that preparations for the proposed “Louis Vuitton Trophy Hong Kong” will no longer continue.

The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club has been instrumental in the promotion and organisation of this unique event and regrets that it has been cancelled.

The world-class sailing event involving America ’s Cup Class boats and racing teams was scheduled to be held on Victoria Harbour in January 2011.

However, it has become clear that many of the teams involved will now be focusing their resources on their preparations for the next America ’s Cup. A draft Protocol, which defines the terms for the 34th America ’s Cup, was released in recent weeks and includes between five and seven events in each of 2011 an 2012. This has made the Louis Vuitton Trophy Hong Kong schedule unfeasible to maintain for some of the competing teams.

The Louis Vuitton Trophy Hong Kong had been supported by the Hong Kong Government with an offer of funding from the Mega Event Fund and use of the new Pier 10 site in Central as a Race Village which was to be open to the public, free of charge. With the event in the planning stage only, no Mega Event Funding has been accessed and no work has been undertaken at Pier 10.

The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, as on-water co-ordinator and one of the three organisers of the event, remains optimistic that other international sailing events will be staged in Hong Kong in the future.

“The Louis Vuitton Trophy had the potential to place Hong Kong on the map as a host city for major world class sailing events. The Club appreciates the tremendous level of Government support we have received in this attempt to bring the Louis Vuitton Trophy to Hong Kong . We remain confident that sailing regatta organisers will continue to consider the city and its harbour as a prospective venue in the future,” said Warwick Downes, Chairman of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club’s organising committee.

The America’s Cup winner, BMW ORACLE Racing, has indicated to the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club an interest in staging an America’s Cup Championship event in Asia and will look at Hong Kong as a potential venue in that context.

“Should this happen, the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club remains happy to assist.” Warwick Downes added.

Chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton, Yves Carcelle, who worked behind the scenes to provide support for the event said: ” Hong Kong , with its wonderful harbour and city skyline, would have made a superb venue for the Louis Vuitton Trophy and I hope that, in the near future, we can support the staging of an event of this caliber here.”

Read our story on the Louis Vuitton Trophy Hong Kong here

This is what we are missing out on:

With yet another convincing win over trans-Tasman rivals Australia, New Zealand’s All Blacks retained the 2010 Bledisloe Cup (20-10).

The win in Christchurch (New Zealand) came after a 49-28 drubbing in Melbourne (Australia) a week before.

While there are still two matches to be played (Sydney September 11 and Hong Kong October 30), the All Blacks have wrapped up the 2010 contest in fine form.

This begs the question:

Will Bledisloe Cup #4 at the Hong Kong Stadium on Saturday October 30 be a boring affairs with the two teams simply going through the motions in preparation for their respective Northern Hemisphere Tours?

Yes, they will be going through the motions, but we suspect it will be anything but a boring affair.

For one, the Hong Kong leg will again serve as preparation for their Northern Hemisphere tours and the players will want to do everything they can to impress the selectors in order to feature in their respective starting line-ups for the Northern tour.

Secondly, when the two Antipodian sides last clashed in the SAR in 2008, the same situation existed with New Zealand again claiming the honours before a ball was even kicked at the Hong Kong Stadium in So Kon Po.  On that day, the Cup holders also took the honours (19-14).  Despite New Zealand lining up as Cup Champions in 2008, the HKRFU recorded an almost full-house and we predict the same will happen come October  30.

Hong Kong is a city with thousands of expatriates plying their trade in the Special Administrative Region (SAR) and a large majority hail from Down Under.  Coupled with that the fact that overall, most expats come from the UK (due to historical reasons) and you have potentially at least half of the HK Stadium capacity (20,000) who will buy tickets.  Due to it’s Sevens reputation as a great party destination and it’s relative proximity to Australia and New Zealand, many supporters from Down Under will also choose to follow their sides to Hong Kong, further swelling the gate takings in So Kon Po.

While the tickets are not cheap (the most expensive category ticket will set you back almost the same as a 3-day pass for the HK Sevens at HK$1,250) most rugby fans in Hong Kong are so starved of top-class rugby that they will easily pay up. The two lower categories are selling for HK$1,000 and HK$880 respectively.

Needless to say, Howzit-HongKong.com will bring you all the action from Bledisloe #4… Live from Hong Kong.

Stay close.

Saturday evening, October 30 will find Howzit-HongKong.com no where else but at Mes Amis in WanChai. Kevin Lewis captured the 2008 fun and music at this popular watering hole in the City’s premier party district.  This is how we party in Hong Kong!

Two years ago I attended the first-ever Bledisloe Cup match (New Zealand vs. Australia) to be played outside of these two countries.

The match, in terms of interest and exposure for the two brands, was a resounding success and last year the powers-that-be decided to try that experiment on Japanese soil.  I don’t know whether the New Zealand and Australian rugby boards were not impressed with their Japan outreach experiment, but thanks be to the rugby-gods that they decided to return the final match of the Bledisloe Cup series here in Hong Kong.

With the addition of the Hong Kong match, the Bledisloe Cup will be decided over four Tests in 2010.

Australia and New Zealand are scheduled to meet three times as part of the Tri-Nations Series and then contest the fourth and final match in Hong Kong.

The 2010 Bledisloe Cup Series

Match 1: Etihad Stadium, Melbourne (July 31)

Match 2: AMI Stadium, Christchurch (Aug 7)

Match 3: ANZ Stadium, Sydney (September 11)

Match 4: Hong Kong Stadium, Hong Kong (October 30)

Tickets

SA Association

Last I heard, the Southern African Association in Hong Kong (SAAHK) received another ticket allocation this year.  Please contact the SAAHK’s Bruce Fowler for more information.

Hong Kong Public Sales

From 2nd August onwards (10:00am) residents in Hong Kong (Hong Kong ID Card holders) will be able to purchase tickets through HK Ticketing online: www.hkticketing.com , by phone : +852 31 288 288 or at HK Ticketing Outlets including Box Offices and Tom Lee Music Stores.

For further details, please go to www.hkticketing.com

Pricing

The entire stadium will be reserved seating. Customers will be able to choose from and reserve the available seats in the stadium and a range of price options will apply depending on the location of the seats. Tickets are priced at HK$1,250, HK$1,000 and HK$880.

Bledisloe Cup

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Kick off at 4.30pm HKT (7.30pm AEDT; 9.30pm NZT).

Here are some pictures from the 2008 Bledisloe Cup in Hong Kong:

Click here to visit the Bledisloe Cup in Hong Kong website

The organisers of the 2010 SaSa 2010 Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races yesterday announced that the races were to be down-scaled from a 3-day to a 2-day event due to the effects of the tropical storm Chanthu.

However, as we have always forecasted here at Howzit-HongKong.com, once again this tropical storm warning proved to be just another storm-in-a-teacup.

We we got home at about 1pm this afternoon, conditions in Victoria Harbour proved to be ideal (a flat,calm harbour) for Dragon Boat racing.

When we passed Tsim Sha Tsui East in the vicinity of the Kowloon Shangrila Hotel, there was some activity on the water.

It may have been the various teams getting in a practice run or two before the big event tomorrow, we don’t know.

So, if you’re in the mood for some great international Dragon Boat racing, head out to the Tsim Sha Tsui East waterfront tomorrow.

Read all about the Race on Howzit-HongKong.com here

The SaSa 2010 Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races moves back to Victoria Harbour this year.

This year, the Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races celebrates its 35th anniversary and at the same time marks the 20th anniversary of the International Dragon Boat Federation. Hong Kong is the birthplace of modern international dragon boat racing and is well respected as the ideal place for international dragon boat racing. Modern competitive dragon boat racing began back in 1976 in Hong Kong and is now practised in over 65 countries/ regions. To mark this auspicious and remarkable milestone, it was decided to move the international races back to iconic Victoria Harbour for 2010.

This outdoor fun-fest, organised by the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Association and co-organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, is the biggest event of the Hong Kong Summer Spectacular. This is going to be a wild carnival filled with sports, culture and culinary treats that you won’t want to miss!

Paddlers from around the world will descend upon the waters of Victoria Harbour vying for international glory during the 35th staging of the Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races.

Meanwhile, on land, participants can indulge in great food, beer and entertainment at the nearby San Miguel Beer Garden. It’s great way to experience the living culture of Asia’s world city.

Date: 23-25 July

Venue: East Tsim Sha Tsui

(Click HERE for a map on how to get there)

(Video and pictures from Discoverhongkong.com)