The Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU) today announced the participating teams at the 2016 Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens (8-10 April). Hong Kong retains its status as the largest tournament on the HSBC Sevens World Series (HSBC SWS) with 16 international teams contesting the core competition and 12 teams contesting the qualifier competition for a chance at promotion to the HSBC Sevens World Series next season.

With 28 teams participating, the Hong Kong event is nearly twice the size of other HSBC Sevens World Series tournaments (16) in the current season.

The 15 core teams participating in all ten tournaments on the international series will once again be delighting the expected 120,000 cumulative fans attending the Hong Kong Sevens in 2016.Those teams are: Argentina, Australia, Canada, England, Fiji, France, Kenya, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, United States of America and Wales.

The sixteenth team invited by World Rugby to round out the HSBC SWS core competition in Hong Kong will be South Korea.

Fiji are the defending Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens champions after their 33-19 win over New Zealand in 2015. It was the 15th tournament victory for Fiji in Hong Kong, including both Rugby World Cup Sevens played here in 1997 and 2005. Fiji’s 15 wins are the most in Hong Kong history, ahead of New Zealand with 11.

HSBC SWS Action heats up at halfway point

Approaching the halfway point of this year’s HSBC Sevens World Series and with Rugby Sevens’ debut at the Rio Olympics looming ever larger on the horizon, the action to date has been compelling.

Fiji, South Africa and New Zealand are all level at the top of the standings on 69 points ahead of the fifth round in Las Vegas (4-6 March).Fiji opened the series in style winning the Dubai Sevens, beating Australia, New Zealand and England on Day Two en route to the final.

The next tournament in Cape Town saw the hosts South Africa win their home event for a third straight season, beating Argentina in their first appearance in a cup final since 2009.

Heading into the third leg in Wellington, hosts New Zealand were in an uncharacteristic seventh place in the standings, but turned up the heat to win their home tourney for the fifth time in six years, paced by sevens sensations the Iaone brothers, Akira and Rieko, who scored three of their four tries in the final to edge South Africa 24-21.New Zealand then backed up their re-emergence in Wellington with a last-gasp win in the inaugural Sydney Sevens, beating hosts Australia 27-24 in the final.

This weekend’s tournament in Las Vegas could see debuts for more luminaries from the fifteen-aside game as Australia’s Quade Cooper and Nick Cummins and New Zealand’s Liam Messam are all set to cross over from their Rugby World Cup 2015 appearances, joining All Black Sonny Bill Williams, Springboks Francois Hougaard and Juan de Jongh and Australia’s Henry Speight in the quest for spots in Rio.

All eleven of the qualified teams for the Rio Games will be present in Hong Kong. The 12th men’s team to compete in Rio will be determined in the final Olympic qualifier tournament in June.

Hong Kong to host battle for promotion to HSBC SWS

For the fifth year, Hong Kong has been selected by World Rugby to host the international qualification tournament for the HSBC Sevens World Series. The qualifier will feature 12 teams, two from each of World Rugby’s six regions. The winner will be promoted to the HSBC SWS in the 2016/17 season, replacing the bottom-placed core team on the Series after the completion of the final event at Twickenham in May. Russia was promoted from last year’s qualifier, replacing Japan who return to the qualifier in 2016.

The twelve confirmed teams for the qualifier are Morocco and Zimbabwe (Africa), Hong Kong and Japan (Asia), Germany and Spain (Europe), Cayman Islands and Mexico (North America), Brazil and Chile (South America) and Papua New Guinea and Tonga (Oceania).

2016 will mark the first appearance for the Cayman Islands at the world-renowned Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens. They are the 58th nation to have participated since the tournament’s inception in 1976.

Germany returns to Hong Kong for the first time since 1992, and could get an emotional lift from the recent announcement of David Hasselhoff’s appearance at this year’s tournament. Hasselhoff is highly regarded in Germany where his 1989 New Year concert on at the Berlin Wall was attended by hundreds of thousands of Germans.

The official draw for all 28 participating teams will be held in Hong Kong on 14 March 2016.

When factoring in the 10 international women’s teams taking part in the Hong Kong Women’s Sevens and the dozens of club and representative teams contesting the many social and youth tournaments staged in the city during HKSEVENS Rugby Week, the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens will once again be Where the World Comes to Play in 2016.

2016 Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens Participating Teams: HSBC SWS Core Teams (listed by ranking):

* Invited by World Rugby to participate in the HSBC SWS core competition in Hong Kong.

HSBC SWS Qualification Tournament (teams grouped by participating region):

For more information about Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2016, please visit our official website at www.hksevens.com and Facebook page at www.facebook.com/HongKong7s.