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)

With a potential Hong Kong bid for the 2023 Asian Games looming, it is not hard to understand why the issue of white elephants will be in the back of locals’ minds.

The following story about South Africa’s World Cup stadia and the fact that they are not suitable for cricket appeared in today’s Sunday Morning Post.

The story highlights comments by SARU President, Oregan Hoskins:

“What we are discussing today should have been discussed before we built the stadiums.  It is tragic we have to act in reverse.”

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

South Africa’s Minister of Tourism, Marthinus Van Schalkwyk will be in Hong Kong this weekend as part of an initiative to improve the country’s tourism offering to the Hong Kong market.

This weekend’s Tourism Workshop which Howzit-HongKong.com will be attending, comes at a very opportune time after South Africa’s recent triumphant hosting of the world’s biggest sports event: the 2010 World Cup.  Now is the time to make the best of all the positive exposure and Van Schalkwyk and his team are seizing the moment.

Meanwhile, SouthAfrica.info reports that the Minister has been appointed to chair the World Economic Forum’s tourism council.

Van Schalkwyk, who has been part of the South African delegation to Davos for the past two years, was invited by World Economic Forum (WEF) executive chairman Klaus Schwab to chair the WEF’s Aviation, Travel and Tourism Industry Agenda Council through to 2011.

Hopefully we’ll be able to congratulate Minister Van Schalkwyk in person this weekend.

Read the full story on Van Schalkwyk’s appointment here

As our compatriots back home come to terms with the end of the 2010 FIFA World Cup (no more football games, fan-parks, dressing up, drinking!) here in Hong Kong I will also be packing away my Vuvuzela.  I will add it to my collection of collectables that I take home every time we make the trek to Cape Town, to be displayed in my home bar.

In fact, after a month of posting almost exclusively about the World Cup, it’s time to also end this feature here on Howzit-HongKong.com and concentrate on the local goings-on.

So, here’s to the Vuvuzela.

Thanks for the “noise” !

I speak under correction, but South Africa must surely be the only country in the world who has witnessed and experienced two national miracles in the space of only two decades.

In 1994, we witnessed and participated in our country’s first-ever democratic elections which heralded the handing over of minority political power without any large-scale violence and bloodshed.

On June 11, 2010 we witnessed the stunning Opening Ceremony of the world’s biggest sporting event.  The first ever event of its kind to be staged on African soil.  An event most believed South Africa was not capable of delivering.  It’s been just over 2 weeks and already pundits are cautiously calling it the grandest football gathering ever.  FIFA should be pleased because before a single ball was kicked, the world body was already assured of the biggest profit from a World Cup ever.

But that is not the 2010 miracle I am referring to.  The miracle is what is happening on the streets of South Africa at this very moment.  South Africans of all hues, backgrounds and persuasions are showing our proud colours; on our cars, on our homes, on our clothes.  In fact, we show our pride in every conceivable way we can.  We are proud to welcome visitors to our country, proud to host  this massive event for a world-wide audience of millions. 

Simply put: we have re-discovered our national identity and we’re celebrating it!

The 2010 World Cup has also given some of us an opportunity to showcase our creativity.  From the huge selection of multi-coloured Makarapa’s, beautifully decorated Vuvuzelas to the ingenious costumes worn to our beautiful new stadiums.

During a gathering to celebrate and to watch a broadcast of the 2010 Opening Ceremony at the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC), using her handy iPhone, (name removed on request) read a poem that she had penned in honour of our national football team Bafana Bafana.

WOZA NKOSI

Bafana Bafana, your people are here

We’re proud of you Yellows, and shout a big cheer

Haaikona Group C, Haaikona Group D

Come face our Boys, their power you’ll see!

With love and with passion, vuvuzelas and drums

Makarabas and diski, the magic she comes…

Like an African Queen with fire in her heart

Ke nako, Ke nako, let doubts fall apart

The manna are waiting, the mamma’s are too

The kids on the street are all praising you

The flags they are flying, the spirit we got

The colours are bright, football fever is hot

Madiba is watching – FW too -

They’re longing and praying and counting on you

Gaan kry daardie rainbow, sit dit bo Tafelberg

Wys die res van die wereld, Suid Afrika’s sterk!

Only God has the power to hold you guys up

He helped us before, in the other world cup

He can do it again, let’s fall on our knees

With Ubaba’s support, success is a breeze

Woza woza, Nkosi, come take our hand

Woza lapa, Nkosi, please hold our land

Woza woza, Nkosi, Shosholoza our team

Woza lapa, Nkosi, God Bless Our Dream

For those not familiar with some of the South African-isms:

Woza Nkosi – Come God

Bafana Bafana – Boys Boys

Haaikona – No / By no means / No way

Vuvuzelas – Stadium blow horn

Makarabas – Miner’s hard hat, now decorated soccer fan hat

Diski – South African World Cup soccer dance

Ke nako, Ke nako – It’s time, it’s time

Madiba – Mr Nelson Mandela

FW – Mr FW de Klerk

‘Gaan kry daardie rainbow, sit dit bo Tafelberg, wys die res van die wereld Suid Afrika’s sterk !’ – Go get that rainbow, put it above Table Mountain, show the rest of the world that South Africa’s strong!

Ubaba – Father / God

Shosholoza – Move forward

Woza lapa Nkosi – Come here God

In an e-mail message inviting South Africans to the South African Association in Hong Kong’s group viewing of the Bafana Bafana vs. France at Wooloomooloo on Tuesday, Bruce Fowler cautions:

“Please note that vuvuzelas are banned inside Wooloo Mooloo.

Confined spaces are not the place to blow vuvuzelas,

Consideration needs to be given to the other guests of the restaurant.”

(No vuvuzelas please, we’re expat South Africans, and we’re inside! Pic: cnngo)

In a city with so many rules, we think Bruce has been living in Hong Kong too long!  Where’s your gees, guys?!

Howzit-HongKong.com was happy to see that locals have found a new use for the iconic World Cup horn.

During a protest gathering at the Legislative Council building in Central today, protesters blew their vuvuzelas outside the guarded building to register their dissatisfaction with the goings-on inside.  Sadly, their vuvzelas were not branded.  What a waste of a marketing opportunity!

Fear not Bruce and Wooloomooloo, Gandalf and the Middle Earth also have issues with the horn:

(Please take this article in the spirit of the World Cup.  No malice is intended and no animals were hurt in the production!)

Here at Howzit-HongKong.com we make it our business to stay abreast of what’s going on in our fair city.  For this reason, we read a plethora of magazines and daily papers to stay abreast of things.

One of these magazines is Time Out Hong Kong. 

Although not free (you can buy it every fortnight at HK$18) Time Out Hong Kong is an excellent source of information on Hong Kong’s vibrant social life and it’s thousands of restaurants, bars and other interesting places/events to visit and hang out at.

As we are all in the spirit of the 2010 Football World Cup, Time Out Hong Kong refused to be left behind and has a interesting featuring in this week’s edition.  They have ”scoured the city” and found one local resident who hails from each of the 32 participating World Cup countries.

The South African representative and long-time Hong Konger is none other but Gary Kitching.

This is what Gary had to say:

“It is an immensely proud moment to be South African and African.  The negative commentary has made us even more determined to host the best World Cup ever.”

Well said Gary.  We love that you’re representing in a Springbok jersey!

(Gary is the MD and a partner of Grebstad Hicks Communications)

The 2010 World Cup feature that appears in the current edition of Time Out Hong Kong:

China may not have made the cut as it were for the 2010 Football World Cup Finals back home, but that didn’t stop these Chinese “Doedies” (girls/xiao jie/mei mei/小妹妹) from showing their allegiance to the 32 nations taking part in South Africa.

Maybe I was a little distracted, but I couldn’t put my finger on all the nations portrayed on the SKII-toned skins of our cutesy models.  For example, which one represents the Dutch?

Can you help out?

(Click on the the Flickr slide-show below or here and add you selection to the Comments section)

(PS. I normally don’t post what some would consider ‘racy’ pics, but in the spirit of the World Cup, I categorized these as “Moderate” in the Flickr album. For this reason, the slide-show may now be available, in that case go directly to our Flickr-page here)