Hong Kong China Target Rugby 7s Medals At China National Games 2025

The 15th National Games 2025 of the People’s Republic of China features Rugby Sevens, which will be played from 12-14 November 2025 at the Kai Tak Stadium in Hong Kong.

Photo Credit – Chinese Taipei Rugby Union

The event is organised by the General Administration of Sport of China every four years and is regarded as the country’s highest-level and largest national multi-sport event. This year, there are competition events for 34 sports and mass participation events for 23 sports. 

The official name of the rugby 7s segment is the mouthful “The 15th National Games of the People’s Republic of China, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Trophy Rugby Sevens Competition”. It is also slightly unusual as the format is not the standard 7-minute halves, but the fixtures will be 9-minute halves.

The one other difference is that 13 players can be fielded in each game, with 7 substitutions allowed per match – compared to the 12 players and five replacements allowed at the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens.

Hong Kong China Rugby will be competing in its first National Games since 2013, and both Salom Yiu Kam Shing and Men’s co-captain James Christie were selected to represent Hong Kong as torchbearers at the Torch Relay to launch the 15th National Games.

Hong Kong Women are in Pool D with Shandong, Sichuan and Shanghai, while the Men are in Pool A with Shandong, Tianjin, and Inner Mongolia.

Photo Credit – HKCR/HK7s

Hong Kong China Women’s 7s – National Games 2025

Andy Vilk, the Hong Kong Women’s 7s Head Coach, told local media SCMP of the importance of the National Games, “We have a good working knowledge of the provinces because of our camps over there, and we watched their qualifier tournament, so we have an understanding of what to expect.”

He added, “Some players know better than me how big this is. It’s all the more exciting to host, and we’re hoping for something resembling the Hong Kong Sevens vibe.”

Hong Kong China Women’s 7s co-captain Natasha Olson-Thorne said, “Obviously, we were disappointed coming out of Sri Lanka, but that lit a fire under us. We are coming into this tournament knowing that we want to go hard. We want to go out there, especially as it’s a home game, and it adds a lot more fire to the belly.

Photo Credit – Hong Kong China/ Chinese Taipei Rugby Union – Co-captain Natasha Olson-Thorne

We are so excited to go out there and play. We usually only get to play at the Hong Kong Sevens. So to be able to play in another tournament at home, that’s great, and to be out with family and friends supporting us.”

The Hong Kong women will face the strong Shandong side first, and she commented, “We know they’ll be tough and it will be a tough tournament. Everyone in this tournament, every game is going to be hard. We’re just going to go out and do the best that we can, play our game, play to our strengths.

We’re going to go out there and play the best that we can. We know we’ve got the crowd behind us. We’ve been training so hard this last block, so now it’s our chance to just go and show what we’ve got.”

The Chinese national women’s 7s team were without several players throughout last season’s HSBC SVNS Series and in this year’s Asia Rugby Emirates Sevens Series, forcing them to select young players who still managed to finish second overall and only lost to Japan in two consecutive finals. The most experienced players have been preparing for these National Games with their Provincial sides, so the stakes are high.

Photo Credit – Hong Kong China/ Chinese Taipei Rugby Union – Co-captain Chloe Chan

Hong Kong Co-captain Chloe Chan was adamant that the work and prep the team had put in would pay off. “We’ve had a few months of preparation now with our preseason, we’ve been to two training camps in China to play against opposition, and that’s very valuable,  and we also had two Asian Sevens Series legs to play other Asian countries.”

She was asked which of the provincial teams they would need to keep an eye on. “A lot of

Provinces have really good quality players, but I would probably say Jiangsu and Shandong are the two provinces.”

Chloe Chan was also excited to be running out at the Kai Tak Stadium for just the second time. “Kai Tak is such an amazing stadium, so we’re really excited to play. It’s always an honour to play in front of a home crowd. We’re really excited to get everyone behind us and play in front of a lot of fans. A lot of the tickets have been swept up already.”

Photo Credit – HKCR

Of the team’s bond and togetherness, the experienced campaigner Olson-Thorne added, “We’re all good friends on and off the pitch, we’ve got each other’s backs, no matter what – that’s on the pitch, and off the pitch.”

Chan agreed and said the team is hungry to win a medal. “We are definitely going in for a medal. I think we’re more than capable of doing it, and we’ve trained super, super hard for it. We’re just hungry for a medal.”

In terms of inspiring players, she said, “From when I was growing up to now, I see so many young girls playing, especially local girls. Part of my motivation is to inspire young girls to play. It’s been really nice to see a lot of young kids starting to play rugby in Hong Kong.”

HKCR Women’s Sevens Squad for 15th National Games of the People’s Republic of China

Natasha OLSON-THORNE (co-captain), Chloe CHAN (co-captain); LI Nim Yan, Melody; AU YEUNG Sin Yi, Maggie; CHAN Chor-Ki, Stephanie; CHONG Ka Yan; Jessica EDEN; Shanna FORREST; HO Wai On, Jessica; Sabay LYNAM; Julia Mibuy MBA OYANA; NAM Ka Man; Gabriella RIVERS;

Hong Kong China Men’s 7s – National Games 2025

The Hong Kong men are coming off the back of a successful title defence of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series 2025 across two legs, in which they didn’t lose a match. 

Head Coach Jevon Groves said the team is focused on doing well at home in the National Games “We’ve got to be on it in terms of our game, and try and impose our game onto the opposition as well. If we do that, then hopefully we can be successful.”

Photo Credit: HKCR – Men’s Head Coach Jevon Groves

In what will be a long season with the sights now set on the National Games, followed by the World Rugby SVNS Division 3 in January, management has a full men’s squad to select from.

“We have a full complement to pick from, which is great and is exciting, but difficult as well. We’ve had probably 16 to 19 guys fighting for positions. It will be a collaborative effort through the coaches that we’re going to select the best 13 players that we feel can represent Hong Kong and make Hong Kong proud,” explained Groves.

Of the opportunity to be playing at home and putting a spotlight on rugby and the Kai Tak Stadium, Groves said, “It’s a fantastic opportunity. It’s a chance for us to use it as a platform to inspire. That’s a big goal for us. We want to be consistent, and we want players to come through and represent Hong Kong. 

Photo Credit – Hong Kong China / Chinese Taipei Rugby Union

We want them to be the next generation. We want them to be the next Max Denmarks and Liam Herberts. We want those boys to inspire the next generation – so to do that at Kai Tak in front of a wider audience is an exciting opportunity for us.”

The National Games is a unique tournament in which provincial and national honours are at stake. Although they have been the dominant team in the region, Hong Kong are ready for the challenge that awaits, as teams will try to knock them off their perch.

“We are under no illusions that it’s going to be a very different sort of atmosphere and those provinces, when they play against us, particularly in Hong Kong, I think they’re going to come at us, and they’re going to be very motivated to knock us off. 

We have to be respectful of that, and then also rise to that challenge. It’s a great challenge for us to be tested at home, and we’re going to hopefully thrive in that challenging environment.”

Uniquely, the format of the Sevens Rugby at these Chinese National Games has been tweaked, and the matches will be longer than usual. Groves quipped that it just means there is more entertaining rugby to enjoy.

“We back our conditioning, and we back our physical fitness. We’ve trained for this format. We’ve conditioned our men to be able to withstand the two nine-minute halves, and we’d like to think that we can take teams to an intensity that they haven’t experienced before. 

We’ve been through a tough pre-season training, so I’d like to think we’re in a good place at this moment in time. I’m confident that the boys are in a good physical place to be able to play the nine minutes. It is not just the physical component, but also managing the game, managing momentum, and keeping hold of the ball. 

The good thing about it is I don’t have to play. It’s them, they’ll have to play. So I’m just there watching. The longer the boys play, the more I enjoy watching them. So we get a treat of an  extra couple of minutes of rugby.” 

HKCR Men’s Sevens Squad for 15th National Games of the People’s Republic of China

Seb BRIEN (co-captain); James CHRISTIE (co-captain); Julien BOURRON; Mike COVERDALE; Max DENMARK; FONG Kit-Fung; Liam HERBERT; Cado LEE Ka-To; Callum McCULLOUGH; Alessandro NARDONI; Bryn PHILLIPS; Matt RICKARD; Harry SAYERS

Rugby Sevens Schedule and Pools – China National Games 2025

You can see more about the National Games here.

Rugby 7s Pools (Men) 

Pool A

• A1 Shandong
• A2 Tianjin
• A3 Inner Mongolia
• A4 Hong Kong

Pool B

• B1 Jiangsu
• B2 Beijing
• B3 Hebei
• B4 Chongqing

Rugby 7s Pools (Women) 

Photo Credit – Hong Kong China / Chinese Taipei Rugby Union – China Women’s Player in action ARESS 2025

Pool C

• C1 Jiangsu
• C2 Hebei
• C3 Anhui
• C4 Beijing

Pool D

• D1 Shandong
• D2 Sichuan
• D3 Shanghai
• D4 Hong Kong

Rugby Sevens Schedule

Wednesday 12 November 

13:00, Match 1, Sichuan vs Shanghai, Women Pool D
13:30, Match 2, Shandong vs Hong Kong, Women Pool D
14:00, Match 3, Hebei vs Anhui, Women Pool C     
14:30, Match 4, Jiangsu vs Beijing, Women Pool C
15:00, Match 5, Beijing vs Hebei, Men Pool B
15:30, Match 6, Jiangsu vs Chongqing, Men Pool B     
16:00, Match 7, Tianjin vs Inner Mongolia, Men Pool A
16:30, Match 8, Shandong vs Hong Kong, Men Pool A
17:00, Match 9, Sichuan vs Hong Kong, Women Pool D   
17:30, Match 10, Shandong vs Shanghai, Women Pool D 
18:00, Match 11, Hebei vs Beijing, Women Pool C     
18:30, Match 12, Jiangsu vs Anhui, Women Pool C     
19:00, Match 13, Beijing vs Chongqing, Men Pool B   
19:30, Match 14, Jiangsu vs Hebei, Men Pool B       
20:00, Match 15, Tianjin vs Hong Kong, Men Pool A   
20:30, Match 16, Shandong vs Inner Mongolia, Men Pool A 

Thursday 13 November 

13:00, Match 17, Shanghai vs Hong Kong, Women Pool D
13:30, Match 18, Shandong vs Sichuan, Women Pool D   
14:00, Match 19, Anhui vs Beijing, Women Pool C     
14:30, Match 20, Jiangsu vs Hebei, Women Pool C
15:00, Match 21, Hebei vs Chongqing, Men Pool B     
15:30, Match 22, Jiangsu vs Beijing, Men Pool B     
16:00, Match 23, Inner Mongolia vs Hong Kong, Men Pool A 
16:30, Match 24, Shandong vs Tianjin, Men Pool A
17:00, Match 25, Pool D 3rd vs Pool C 4th, Women Knockout Stage
17:30, Match 26, Pool C 3rd vs Pool D 4th, Women Knockout Stage
18:00, Match 27, Pool B 3rd vs Pool A 4th, Men Knockout Stage
18:30, Match 28, Pool A 3rd vs Pool B 4th, Men Knockout Stage
19:00, Match 29, Pool D 1st vs Pool C 2nd, Women Knockout Stage
19:30, Match 30, Pool C 1st vs Pool D 2nd, Women Knockout Stage 
20:00, Match 31, Pool B 1st vs Pool A 2nd, Men Knockout Stage   
20:30, Match 32, Pool A 1st vs Pool B 2nd, Men Knockout Stage   

Friday 14 November 2025

17:30, Match 33, Match 25 Loser vs Match 26 Loser, Women 7th/8th Playoff
18:00, Match 34, Match 27 Loser vs Match 28 Loser, Men 7th/8th Playoff
18:30, Match 35, Match 25 Winner vs Match 26 Winner, Women 5th/6th Playoff
19:00, Match 36, Match 27 Winner vs Match 28 Winner, Men 5th/6th Playoff
19:30, Match 37, Match 29 Loser vs Match 30 Loser, Women’s Bronze
20:00, Match 38, Match 31 Loser vs Match 32 Loser, Men’s Bronze
20:30, Match 39, Match 29 Winner vs Match 30 Winner, Women’s Cup
21:00, Match 40, Match 31 Winner vs Match 32 Winner, Men’s Cup
21:40, Presentation Ceremony 

Local Hong Kong Times shown.

Tickets

You can see more from the HKCR on tickets for the Rugby 7s at the Chinese National Games 2025.

How To Watch Rugby 7s at The 15th National Games

We have not seen any confirmation of how to watch the rugby coverage outside of China and Hong Kong.

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