The Hong Kong China men’s and women’s sevens squads will face another test of Asian rugby supremacy in the Melrose Claymores competition at the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2025 (28-30 March).
Defending champions Hong Kong China men’s sevens will again face rivals Japan and China next March, while the women will play Thailand and Kazakhstan in their Melrose Claymores clash.
The Melrose Claymores was introduced in 2024 as a competition featuring invitational teams from Asia in honour of the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens’ role in supporting the development of Asian rugby from its inception in 1976.
China Women and Hong Kong China Men won the inaugural competition, which features trophies donated by Melrose Rugby Football Club in Scotland, hosts of the world’s oldest sevens competition, the Melrose Sevens, founded in 1883. In a reciprocal gesture, the Hong Kong Sevens trophy is on offer to winners of one of the competitions at Melrose.
After claiming the title in the final Hong Kong Sevens in Causeway Bay last April, the Hong Kong China men’s sevens team will be out to defend the hardware at the new Kai Tak Stadium in 2025.
Rugby has already been played at Kai Tak with the first international sports event held at the new Youth Sport Ground a 15s test match between Hong Kong China men and Brazil, which the hosts won 38-17.
Now Hong Kong China’s sevens experts will take to the pitch of the main stadium when the world’s greatest sevens extravaganza serves as the opening event of the 50,000-seat stadium from 28-30 March 2025.
The Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens will cap an intense period of play for the Hong Kong China sevens squads with the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger 2025 also starting in March. The top four teams advancing from that three-tournament competition will advance to a play-off in May in Los Angeles with a chance to earn promotion to the global HSBC SVNS Series.
Head Coach of Hong Kong China Sevens, Paul John, spoke about the upcoming calendar saying, “It’s definitely an intense period of rugby. Both our men’s and women’s teams qualified for the Challenger Series, which was our goal; it is a reward for our success in Asia to be able to compete in these global competitions for spaces on the series.
“The timing is a bit tough with four tournaments in six to seven weeks, but we are fortunate that with the support of HKCR and the HKSI we have bigger squads to draw from and that the competition for places in the team is very hard; it is difficult to select squads now.”
The HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger opens with back-to-back legs in Cape Town South Africa (1-2 and 7-8 March) while the third tournament will be held shortly after the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens on 11-12 April in Krakow, Poland, but for John there is no chance of the Melrose Claymores competition slipping off the radar.
“Even though there are two events in Cape Town and then Krakow after, Hong Kong is such an important event for all of us as players and coaches here – and also for the international teams as well,” said John.
Hong Kong China men battled to victory in last year’s Melrose Claymores, beating China 19-17 in a tense opener on Friday before losing 26-14 to Japan in the second match. Japan beat China 31-26 to reach the final but lost to the hometown heroes Hong Kong China, 22-12.
The women started their tournament with an inspirational win over China – who reached the Paris 2024 Olympic sevens competition, 19-12. That win fuelled self-belief and was followed by a convincing 28-10 victory over Thailand to set-up a rematch in the final against China, which Hong Kong China lost 24-10.
John believes the level of that competition was on par with the rest of the weekend’s offering and will be so again in 2025.
“The last Melrose was excellent for us. Both teams played three games, and the timing of the games meant the crowd was able to get behind us. The atmosphere in the stadium was really special and was marked by a very special win for the women over China on day one.
“We are fortunate to have another really good competition this year. When the men play Japan and China the competition is always intense. It’s difficult now to predict the outcomes here and that is why these games are always so good.
“The women are the same. Our competition with Thailand has been close historically. They had a slight edge on us on the Asian series last year, but we did enough to fend them off and reach the Challenger Series ahead of them. Kazakhstan has always been tough for us with a very physical style that is different to what we usually face in Asia.
“The excitement in the squad is already starting to grow with Kai Tak coming. Everyone wants to be included. Players want to play, and everyone wants to play at Kai Tak,” added John.