A rugby competition on Sunday will serve as the first test event at Kai Tak Stadium, paving the way for the Hong Kong Sevens in March. Hong Kong China Rugby will be hosting the concluding day of the University Sports Federation of Hong Kong, China’s rugby sevens tournament, which features 17 men's and women's teams. The first match is scheduled to kick off at 11.15am, with the final expected to conclude at 6.30pm. Ticket holders can enter the venue as early as 10am, but there will be no on-site ticket sales on the day. James Farndon, CEO of Hong Kong China Rugby, said the event will test various things needed for the Hong Kong Sevens. "Our event operations team is obviously very experienced in running the main events, but here in particular, having the first opportunity to test, for instance, the full event control room in terms of the stadium operations, the media centre being open, broadcast teams, getting a look around the stadium," he said. "In terms of some of our entertainment, some of our sport experiences and entertainments that we're looking at for the main event. We'll have the opportunity to test and plan some of these event presentations. Equally we'll bring in some of our DJ and match announcers for the event which allows us to test some of the sound systems that are used." Sports Commissioner George Tsoi anticipates around 10,000 spectators for the test event, saying it will be the first of many at the stadium. "The infrastructure has by and large been completed and every little part of the operations has been tested. What's more important is that... we put together every element into practice, into one single event so that we can have a certainty or we can have a more realistic test on the performance when all these elements are put together," he said. "We will be progressively increasing the complications, the scale, as well as the number of spectators of all of our test events."
