50 years, still going strong: Five big stories out of the Hong Kong Sevens

The Hong Kong Sevens is done and dusted for another year, with the World Championship Series now officially underway and heading to Spain for a second round next month.

However, with the farewell of the longest-running Sevens tournament comes an opportunity for a pulse check on the shortened format of the sport, and look at the game in general.

RugbyPass breaks down the key stories out of Hong Kong, with the activities off the field proving as valuable as those on the field.

Fragrant Harbour still the heartbeat of sevens

With over 130,000 tickets sold, it’s fair to call the 50th iteration of the Hong Kong Sevens a raging success in 2026.

However, it was not just the events at Kai Tak Sports Park that made it so, but the hundreds of events in the week leading up to that made it feel like a true global event had rolled into town.

Across the week, Hong Kong saw hundreds of parties, conferences around the future of the game, and major events complementing the Sevens.

Among the many highlights included events at Hong Kong Disneyland, parties at the Happy Valley racecourse, and the Hong Kong 10s at the Rugby Football Club, which saw Yokohama side Tradition YCAC win back-to-back titles.

After 50 years, the enthusiastic response from fans is going to ensure the Hong Kong Sevens remains the drawcard event for the Sevens format for years to come.

Tiered format gets big thumbs up

The 2025/26 HSBC SVNS World Series came with a new finals format, new structure, and critically, a new promotion-relegation system that saw eight teams in the top league, with a SVNS 2 and an SVNS 3 series below them for sides looking to make it in.

With the best performers of SVNS 2 coming into the World Championships, there would inevitably be question marks around how those sides would stack up against World Series sides.

Turns out, they were more than a match.

The women’s tournament saw big performers in Spain and Brazil, who, despite not making the top eight, still managed to finish higher than the incumbent SNVS 1 side Great Britain, which lost to South Africa in Pool B.

The SVNS 2 and SVNS 3 champions, Argentina and South Africa, surprisingly finished in last, but both showed they have plenty of talent to push deeper in Spain.

The men’s tournament was even better, with Kenya making for the quarter-finals and finishing ahead of France, while Uruguay also performed well, nearly defeating defending champions South Africa before defeating Great Britain and Germany on day two.

Despite finishing eleventh, the Germans also managed to defeat the British in Pool B, proving the Isles are firmly in the sights of the SVNS 2 sides looking to claim their SVNS 1 position.

Finals footy a different game in Men’s Sevens

The finals leg of Sevens over the last few years has proven a banana skin for the top of the table, and in the men’s competition in Hong Kong, it proved to once again be the case.

Defending champions the Blitzboks made history, winning South Africa’s first ever title in Hong Kong, but they were made to work for it after suffering a loss to Spain in Pool A, before bouncing back against Argentina to top the pool.

It was a good tournament for Spain and the Puma 7s, however, the sides using their late form from the regular season to leapfrog New Zealand, Fiji and Australia to make it to the semi-finals.

Spain claimed the bronze while Argentina made it to the final, going down again to South Africa.

With the sides having a month off until Valladolid, the Spanish look to be the side looming as the challenger to the Blitzboks: with a home Sevens series and the side right in the mix for finals, anything is possible.

Black Ferns 7s on track for one-in-a-generation status

Six leg victories in a row. A side on the verge of claiming back-to-back championships. Can anyone stop the Black Fern 7s?

Across the history of Women’s Sevens, New Zealand is the only side ever to claim three consecutive titles in a row, from 2012-13 to 2014-15.

Their 19-14 victory over rivals Australia on the weekend, despite the close scoreline, showed that the Kiwis right now are a class above all others, with an Australian try at the death by Maddison Levi adding some respectability to the score.

Should they continue to back it up in Spain, the Kiwis will likely be locked in as champions for the 2025-26 season, and all signs point to that form continuing with new arrivals in Kelsey Teneti and Maia Davis among the best performers.

A championship here locks them in for a stab at history in the 2026-27 season, with a third title seeing them achieve parity with that first Kiwi 7s side; and in the rich pantheon of success that is New Zealand’s Sevens rugby, that is a huge achievement.

Hong Kong leading the way forward for lasting impact

On top of all the action on the field, Hong Kong in 2026 proved to have just as many significant events around it.

The successful return of First Nations & Pasifika at the HK 10s and the Melrose Claymore Finals proved particularly notable, with the men’s final seeing hosts Hong Kong prevail 19-15 over Japan.

The women’s tournament saw several new sides rise, with Thailand topping the ladder before going down to Denmark 17-14 in the final.

When the final whistle blew, it proved a week that many fans will not forget, but also shows how much power Sevens rugby can wield.

With teams from all over the world getting their chance to shine, it’s fair to say Hong Kong continues to set the benchmark for everything other Sevens tournaments aspire to be.