Results from the 2008 Hong Kong Rugby Sevens - Day 1

See also: Second Day (Saturday) of Results from the Hong Kong Sevens and Third Day (Sunday) of Results from the Hong Kong Sevens. The 2008 Hong Kong Rugby Sevens kicked off in a rather damp and cool Hong Kong today. The rugby on display, with many of the larger teams against much weaker opposition, offered similar, with just a few flashes of brilliance, and a few moments of concern for a couple of the bigger teams.

The stadium which can hold 40,000 was announced half full at just before 6 p.m. and the infamous South Stand full a few minutes later. Despite being announced full, the South Stand, did not look as busy as in previous years with numerous spaces and empty seats still visible. Despite this turnout for the first day, was excellent and a full house is expected on the Saturday and Sunday.

The rugby kicked off at 16:30 with a game between Australia and Hong Kong. The home side played well, but Australia proved too strong winning 24 - 12. Fiji, in the third game of the day against Korea, suffered a brief scare with the Koreans scoring a converted try early in the match to lead the past champions 0 - 7. But this was just what the Fijians had needed and bounced immediately to ultimately finish the game with a convincing 42 - 7. As widely expected, New Zealand also dominated their opposition, and enjoyed one of the most impressive performances of the day, which would have finished 50 - 0 if it had not been for a well worked try by Chinese Taipei in the last second of the game. One of the few moments they had the ball longer than for a few seconds.

On paper, the two biggest games were Tonga v France and England v Canada. France started well but the game became very tight and scrappy after Tonga scored a converted try to make it 14 - 7. With both sides equalising the other out, France played well in the second half to earn a second converted try and win 7 - 21.

Canada started well against England and were rewarded with a well worked converted try in the 4th minute. England responded with a converted try of their own just  under a minute later, then on the 7th minute the England team and much of the crowd thought they had scored another try only for it to be disallowed. The second half started more promisingly for England but Canada were allowed back into the game late on to score their second try, ending the game 24 - 12. See also: Second Day (Saturday) of Results from the Hong Kong Sevens, and Third Day (Sunday) of Results from the Hong Kong Sevens.

In our 2008 Hong Kong Coverage Sevens we offer Pictures from the Sevens, featuring all the fun and even a few of the rugby, 2008 Hong Kong Rugby Sevens Fixtures, Results from the First Day of the 2008 Hong Kong Sevens, Results from the Second Day of the 2008 Hong Kong Rugby Sevens, Results from Day Three of the 2008 Hong Kong Rugby Sevens and even some live text coverage of the more popular games.

You may be also be interested to check out the Pictures from Past Hong Kong Rugby Sevens, and see the results etc from the 2007 Hong Kong Rugby Sevens, plus there are many more useful tips about Hong Kong in the links below.

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