20 Feb 2007
The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union has announced the draw for the 2007 Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse 
Hong Kong Sevens, to be played across three days from March 30 to April 1, with current IRB Sevens World Series defending champions Fiji heading the seedings.
Each of the top four seeds has won an IRB Sevens World Series event so far this season, with defending Hong Kong champions England out to capture a first Cup title. South Africa won the season opener in Dubai; New Zealand won in George, South Africa; Samoa won in Wellington and Fiji won the USA Sevens in San Diego.
Fiji currently lie joint top in the standings with New Zealand and head pool A, which also features Scotland, Portugal and Sri Lanka, one of six Asian teams set to take part at the 40,000-seater Hong Kong Stadium. Samoa, on the strength of their last six tournaments in which they have made four finals and won their first Cup title in Wellington, are third seeds and top pool C, where Canada lie in wait alongside two Asian sides in Japan and China. George winners New Zealand top pool D and are drawn with the unpredictable Kenyans as well as two of the qualifiers from Europe's FIRA Sevens circuit, Russia and Italy. Pool E features the tournament's fifth seed England, who enjoy strong support in Hong Kong and have won the last four Hong Kong Sevens. Under new coach Ben Ryan, the English will take on Argentina, Korea and hosts Hong Kong. Due to the seeding structure in Hong Kong, Pool F is traditionally one of the most competitive and this year is no different. France top the group as sixth seeds and face Australia, the ever improving Tunisians and the USA, winners of the Shield trophy at their home event in San Diego.
As second seed, South Africa heads Pool B and face a tough group challenge from Wales, Tonga and Chinese Taipei.
Beth Coalter, formerly organiser of the Hong Kong Sevens and now Tournament Operations Manager in charge of the IRB Sevens World Series, commented: "The 2006/07 Series has been hugely competitive so far, best highlighted by the fact that we've had different winners at each of the first four fantastic events. With the teams? positions so delicately poised it's even easier than normal to get excited about Hong Kong.
"The teams have always enjoyed the event in the past and with the extra points on offer I'm sure that they'll all do their best to take the strongest squads possible. It's all shaping up to be a fantastic event and with broadcast coverage of the series at an all time high more people than ever will be watching," Coalter added.
In line with IRB Sevens regulations, the event's draw ranks the top 12 teams based on their results from the preceding six IRB Sevens tournaments. For invited teams outside of these events, rankings are based upon appearances and results in earlier IRB Sevens events, as well as on past Hong Kong Sevens and satellite series results. All seedings and rankings have been ratified by the IRB.
With the series race so tight, the 30 series points up for grabs for the Cup champion in Hong Kong could be crucial in deciding this year's overall champion. Fiji and New Zealand are tied on top of the IRB Sevens World Series with 60 points each, closely followed by South Africa with 56. Samoa lies in fourth place with 48 points, while four-time Hong Kong Sevens champions England are also within striking range with 36 points.
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