Cathay Pacific to Auction World’s Largest Rugby Ball

On Tuesday, Cathay Pacific unveiled the world’s largest rugby ball, as certified by the Guinness World Records. The ball was created as part of the build-up to the 2011 Cathay Pacific / Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens.

The ball, which has been manufactured using authentic rugby ball materials, measures about 2.9metres in height, 4.7m in length and 2.9m in diameter – it can accommodate more than 3,300 standard-sized rugby balls inside.

The record setting giant ball will be auctioned to raise funds for those affected by recent natural disasters in Japan, Yunnan Province in China and Christchurch in New Zealand. The funds raised will be given to the Hong Kong Red Cross to assist its relief efforts in the three countries.

 “Cathay Pacific is proud once again to be the co-title sponsor and official airline for the Hong Kong Sevens. The Sevens seems to get bigger and better with each passing year so we decided to do our biggest-ever promotion to share in the excitement of the Sevens with the people of Hong Kong and visitors,” said Mr Ginns, speaking at the unveiling event. “At the same time, we wanted to put the ball to good use, and we hope the auctioning of the ball will raise a big sum of money to help earthquake relief efforts.”

The giant ball will be on public display at the Cucina restaurant on Level 6 of the Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel, the official player’s hotel of the Hong Kong Sevens, from 15 to 23 March. It will then be transferred to the Hong Kong Stadium for the Hong Kong Sevens weekend from 25 to 27 March. In addition, a replica of the record-beating ball will be on public display at Hong Kong Station in Central from 17 to 27 March.

As part of its “Game On!” campaign, the airline has created a striking new TV commercial featuring a number of its Flight Attendants battling it out on the rugby pitch. The commercial can be seen around Hong Kong and will get a lot of coverage at the Sevens.

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