Why the Hong Kong Sevens always lives up to the hype

It’s a common belief that when it comes to the HSBC SVNS World Series, momentum is the biggest thing you need to achieve victory.

Across many years of competition, the ability for sides to not only win tournaments but consistently push for podium finishes has often determined the best from the rest. The best never rest on their laurels.

Yet, the format of SVNS rugby invites endless opportunities for surprise results, and endless chances for the rest to catch up to the best, and fewer venues have seen that happen more than Hong Kong.

So, as the 50th iteration of SVNS’ oldest tournament approaches, one key question emerges: can momentum and historical results give us a sense of how results will play out this weekend?

Since the introduction of the current format, which began as the IRB World Sevens Series in 1999, only six national teams have ever claimed victory at the men’s Hong Kong SVNS, with the famous venue proving a fortress for Fiji and New Zealand’s early dominance of the tournament.

Across the opening nine years of the wider SVNS format, New Zealand finished as world champions on eight occasions, with their ability to use momentum proving critical in all victorious tournaments, winning in consecutive legs.

The introduction of the women’s tournament only proved to add to that theory of momentum, with New Zealand teams also dominating.

However, whenever the SVNS arrived in Hong Kong, that dominance seemed to go out the window. For some reason, something about the Hong Kong Sevens saw surprise winner after surprise winner.

Fiji was a regular finalist in the first decade of the SVNS format in the Fragrant Harbour, winning three titles and appearing in eight finals, yet New Zealand struggled to match that and maintain their form seen in other tournaments.

Incredibly, it would be England who would dominate the first decade of the tournament with four titles in Hong Kong, with Samoa also winning one title in 2007, serving as a precursor to their dominance of the World Series in the 2009-10 World Series.

The importance of momentum in Sevens rugby came into its own in the 2010s, and no more was that the case than Hong Kong becoming a Fijian fortress, the side winning seven titles in ten years to go with three World Series champion titles that decade.

However, following the resumption of the World Series following the COVID-19 pandemic, surprise results began to become the flavour of the Hong Kong Sevens, especially in the men’s tournament. The rest were catching up to the best.

No more was this the case than Australia, who won the 2021-22 Word Series despite only winning one leg that year, backing it up with winning their first SVNS tournament in Hong Kong in 2022-23.

The big improvers since then were Argentina, the men’s Los Pumas 7s claiming their first Hong Kong title in the 2024-25 series.

The introduction of finals in 2023-24 expedited opportunities for surprise results, with France winning the men’s tournament that year after Los Pumas topped the regular season, while Australia’s women’s side shocked a dominant New Zealand outfit to win the final in Madrid.

That has only continued into the 2024-25 series, with Argentina again being offset by South Africa, who claimed the title in the grand finals in Los Angeles.

So, with the new-format world championships now set to begin, the question remains: can momentum and history give us a sense of how results will play out?

The Blitzboks may be coming into Hong Kong having won the last three legs of the World Series, but across their entire history, South Africa’s men’s side has lifted the trophy in the Vertical City.

The Black Ferns 7s might have a good record in Hong Kong, have won four of the last five legs of the 2025-26 season and are the current defending champions. But they have been unseated in finals before, even when they have seemed utterly unstoppable.

With Fiji in the men’s competition and Australia in the women’s competition yapping at their heels and with the ladders wound back to zero, anything can happen.

Even a surprise winner from out of nowhere is on the cards, something that has played out many times before across the history of the Hong Kong SVNS.

That is even before you get to the brand new finals format, with two more legs of finals to be played after this weekend in Spain and France.

Do we really know how these finals will play out? Until they finally do, no. As a fan, that is the best answer to have.