Sports Matters North Asia 2024 – Key Rugby Takeaways (Part 1)

The Sports Matters North Asia 2024 conference took place at the Happy Valley Racecourse on Friday 5th April 2024, which was the opening day of the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2024. We hear what World Rugby & HKCR are doing on their sustainable journeys.

The programme got underway with welcome addresses from the organisers, as well as representatives including Jimmy Chiang (Associate Director-General of Investment Promotion – Invest Hong Kong), Florian Jungbauer (Head of Brand and Digital Marketing Channels – The Hong Kong Jockey Club), and Matthew Vandrau (President, EMEA & APAC of Wasserman).

Although there was a nearly full day of sessions at the Sports Matters North Asia 2024, we only stayed for the opening two sessions as they had a rugby focus – and the others overlapped with the Sevens being played at the Hong Kong Stadium not far away.

One more session was planned for rugby which we could not attend which was presented by Danielle ‘Nolli’ Waterman – but we have a full interview with the HSBC ambassador coming soon.

Scrummaging Success: Rugby Matters – Part 1 Sustainability Matters

Photo Credit: Sports Matters

Jaime McKeown (Sustainability, Diversity and Inclusion Manager – World Rugby) said that rugby’s governing body introduced their sustainability plan in January of 2022 and one of the key real-world aspects that affect rugby is weather.

Safeguarding sport and our future are intrinsically linked to impacting environmental changes now. Examples were given of how drastic weather events have several knock-on effects on the sport and its survival when costs impact running these events (spectator and player welfare due to extreme temperatures, insurance cancellation costs and the loss of revenue from the cancellation of events leading to loss of revenue).

For mega events such as Rugby World Cups and the SVNS Series, sustainability should be applied but also ensure everyone in their sphere of influence is driving change too and that using the right language is important to reach stakeholders.

McKeown feels that many people are willing but it’s about understanding and amplifying the impacts of making the necessary changes.

Green Sevens & Starting The Sustainability Journey – Hong Kong

Robbie McRobbie, MBE (CEO – Hong Kong China Rugby) highlighted that the Hong Kong Sevens introduced the ‘Green Sevens’ which was just one more step but he feels that for sustainability to really work, only legislation will drive real change.

In the case of the Hong Kong China Rugby Union, when World Rugby share the best practices and encourages the unions to utilise them, they can also insist some aspects are implemented too.

Photo Credit: Sports Matters – Robbie McRobbie, MBE (CEO – Hong Kong China Rugby)

The government also has a stick and carrot to impose requirements, especially when it comes to funding, and sustainability should be a high priority, said the CEO.

McRobbie – on the sustainability journey – said that taking the first step for everyone is key and not to be over-awed. It is not always easy and getting things right in a social media and naysayer culture, are issues he called a real bugbear.

He specifically addressed trying to implement positive changes at the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, and instead of receiving praise or support from some environmental groups for starting the change journey – they would rather focus on the negatives.

McKeown confirmed this can happen and some people will look for reasons to embarrass you but have to have the conviction to follow through – he encourages organisations to start but to not set themselves up for failure either – know what your impacts are and how and when you’ll address them and have open and honest conversations about these.

Role Models Needed To Drive Change

The outgoing HKCR CEO added to the sphere of influence aspect, highlighting that role models are important, mentioning both Jaimie from World Rugby and Jamie Farndale from GB Sevens, who as a player, is driving change and is a passionate advocate in rugby on sustainability. 

Farndale had also spoken during the week at the Sustainability Summit and highlighted that the travel needed to get to rugby events generates 90 per cent of the emissions and that older venues that do not use renewable energy, with food waste, packaging and plastics all need to be addressed.

McRobbie said that athletes’ voices and their influence are so important and he emphasised that change happens because of people that ask for it.

Commercial Partners Want More Impact

One topic we heard all week across a range of events and in-person meetings is that commercial partners want to partner with purpose and not just see their logo on billboards for any event.

The kinds of questions commercial partners are asking now are also driving dialogue and helping organisations to self-examine what they are doing from a sustainability and impact point of view.

Jaimie added that for World Rugby, for example, 90 per cent of their emissions are from travel due to the global nature of the events they host.

Photo Credit: Sports Matters – Jaime McKeown (Sustainability, Diversity and Inclusion Manager – World Rugby)

When looking for examples of what sports are running good initiatives for impactful change, SailGP was suggested as it has an impact league, while there have also been positives caused by the introduction of the Premier League Sustainability League with fan engagement and league tables for hosts and venues highlighting the competition aspect in the implementations of sustainable impacts.

Finally, McRobbie suggested that to make real impacts, it needs to be made easy for fans to change their ways and do simple things to change habits.

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Sports Matters North Asia 2024 will be posting YouTube video highlights in due course.

We would like to thank the organisers for inviting Rugby Asia 247 to attend the event whose official partners included The Hong Kong Jockey Club, Cathay, HSBC, Laureus, InvestHK, Wasserman, HK China Union, Asia Football Group, Havas Play, The Marketing Society, Great Entertainment Group and Britcham.

Read More In Part 2 Here.

Rugby Development News

• Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens Shows Its Where The World Wants To Play – NZ Does The Double Again.
• Max Woodward – What Makes Playing In Hong Kong So Special.
• Asia Rugby Athletes Committee Commits to Sustainability Goals.
• World Rugby Shape of the Game 2024 Recommendations.