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Mathew Scott

Fiji is the spiritual home of sevens rugby and for Fijian fans the Hong Kong Stadium is the pulpit before which they worship.
Success out on the field of play – 19 Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens titles in total including the past five in a row – is matched only by the scores of fans who descend on the city each year, and help bring the tournament to life each day.
Not so in 2022, as the fates have conspired against Fiji’s travelling fans with the lingering effects of the global pandemic seeing routes cancelled or marked down at prohibitive costs.
But that’s not to say Fiji won’t be watching. Far from it. With live (and free) broadcasts reaching an estimated 99 per cent of the population, the safe bet is that most of the islands’ 910,000 inhabitants will be tuning in to every moment.
“You know in Fiji most of the population goes to church on a Sunday. If a Fiji match clashes with a church service, the church pastor, the church congregation, they will move that church service so that they will be free to watch. That’s how big the Hong Kong Sevens are.”
So says Satish Narain, the “voice of Fiji rugby” and a man who has broadcast more Hong Kong Sevens to fans back home than he cares to remember.

Like the rest of Fiji, though, Narain will be taking in most of this weekend’s action from his couch – or on the screens that will beam the tournament into cafes and supermarkets and everywhere else people might gather.
Fiji first got to watch the Hong Kong Sevens live on television in 1991. These days coverage – via free-to-air and/or subscription service – is such that “it’s as close to being inside the Stadium as you can imagine”, says Narain.
“There’s a free-to-air channel that will carry broadcasts of every match, and that alone will reach probably 99 per cent of the population,” he says. “That’s all to do with the Fijian government with the digitalisation. Then there’s pay TV that’s commercial free, so it’s like you are in Hong Kong. You get to watch the entertainment, you get to watch anything the host broadcaster throws up for international consumption.”
Will Fiji miss fervent fans at Hong Kong Sevens?
And no one in Fiji will miss a moment.
“What you should mention is that in Fiji during the Hong Kong Sevens even the police report no crimes because everybody’s glued to Hong Kong,” says Narain.
Another Fijian regular who’ll be missing in action this week is the filmmaker and photographer Bruce Southwick, a familiar sight around the Stadium over the past decade, and the man behind the award-winning documentary Sevens from Heaven, which followed the Fijians all the way to their historic gold at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Fijian fans might be conspicuous by the absence this year but Fijian rugby has continued to motor on, he says. And Fiji has named a new-look squad for Hong Kong with 10 of the 13 players travelling in line for debuts as the 2022-23 Rugby World Sevens Series kicks off.
“They’ve named a whole lot of newbies in this team but when they get there, they’re gonna be like friggin’ superstars,” says Southwick. “When they pull on that jersey when they play there in Hong Kong it’s just like a special calling for Fijian players.”

The last time Southwick was in Hong Kong, in 2019, he revealed another co-production with HSBC – a short documentary, which goes some way to explaining Fiji’s unique passion for the tournament and for the city that hosts it.
It’ll be on show again this weekend, and back on full throttle when the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens returns again in April
“The Sevens will just be on in every home or village or you can go to the supermarket and it’s on,” says Southwick. “Fiji will just come to a standstill. They’ll watch all the games, they’ll know all the teams. People have been planning stuff for their homes and in the villages but if you’re in town, you’ll just stop where you are, and watch Fiji’s game in a shop or a supermarket – wherever you are, they will be playing every second. That’s just normal life here.
“Hong Kong is the one event where the most fans would actually get off their a** and go to. So we might not come this year but I’d say in April we’ll more than make up for it.”


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Sport

Rugby

HK Sevens


Fates have conspired against travelling fans, but most of 910,000 population will tune in to every moment – even church will take a back seat
‘During the Sevens even the police report no crimes because everybody is glued to Hong Kong,’ says veteran broadcast commentator



The fates have conspired against Fiji’s travelling fans for return of Hong Kong Sevens, but most of 910,000 population will tune in to every moment – even church will take a back seat.


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