HONG KONG SEVENS GREAT SAYS TOUCH RUGBY’S ‘HUGE SELLING POINT’ COULD MEAN OLYMPIC INCLUSION

Sunday's Hong Kong International Touch Championships begins week-long rugby carnival in city, culminating in Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens

Touch rugby's mixed version was a "huge selling point" and could allow it to gatecrash the Olympic Games, according to former Hong Kong Sevens superstar Ricky Cheuk Ming-yin.

Cheuk, who represented the city at last year's Touch World Cup, was elected as a director of Hong Kong, China Rugby in November.

He was among a healthy crowd watching Sunday's 2025 Hong Kong International Touch Championships at Happy Valley Recreation Ground, as the ball started rolling for a week-long rugby carnival in the city that will climax with Kai Tak Stadium's first Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens.

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Cheuk said he was "exploring how to integrate touch and sevens", with a view to the non-contact version providing local players for the Hong Kong sevens teams.

A veteran of the 2001 and 2005 Rugby Sevens World Cups, he also underlined his wish to make the touch championships better each year. It currently happens over one 12-hour day, but Cheuk was hoping for a two-day competition as soon as next year.

That would mirror the midweek Tradition HKFC10s, which provide the competitive curtain raiser for the flagship sevens. Sunday's tournament, which featured 26 sides across three competitions, saw local teams joined by opponents from mainland China, Singapore, Japan and Taiwan.

"You can already feel the vibe leading into next week," Cheuk said. "I've been involved with touch for two years; it fits really well with the build of the local population and it's a fast-growing sport.

"Our players who went to the World Cup brought that experience back to the local league and made it more competitive, and we will eventually see some of them cross to sevens, which I would love."

Sevens gained Olympic recognition in 2016, and Cheuk backed touch's claims for future inclusion.

"I do see it in the Olympics - it's very rare that an Olympic [team] sport can mix boys and girls, and that is a huge selling point," he added. "Hopefully, we can expose it to more media, and get even more people involved."

Flag football, a non-contact version of American football, has been added to the programme for Los Angeles Games in 2028.

Jason Carson, an American on Taiwanese team Midas Touch, also plays flag football.

He said the US sport's Olympic inclusion would provide an "interesting conflict", with elite NFL players watching on as people who were just "really good" compete for medals.

Carson also revealed his touch community were upset after the sport was overlooked for next month's World Masters Games in Taiwan.

"There are so many different versions, with mixed and single sex, and different age groups, and more exposure for the sport would be great," said Carson, who switched to touch because "I am getting older and contact wears you down".

Playing in Hong Kong for the first time, ahead of dashing for a plane so he could start work at 8am on Monday, Carson said he "loved the tournament, there is so much space, with so many teams and it's very competitive".

Cheuk noted an increased competitiveness in this year's tournament, while Stanic To, an impressive player for Galaxy Touch Hong Kong, said the overseas teams had heightened competition.

To has played touch for 10 years, and went to the 2024 World Cup with Hong Kong.

"I saw the quality of play there and it made me think the next step is the Olympics," he said. "Sevens will always be the main version in Hong Kong, but touch can be as big as 15s."

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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2025-03-23T23:43:53Z