'Hot guys performing in their natural surroundings'

Shanghai’s rugby sevens tournament returns to the Shanghai Rugby Football Club this weekend, but this time in an “international” format superior to last year’s, thanks to sponsorship from the mighty Guinness. The Guinness Shanghai International 7s Rugby Tournament, as it is now formally known, kicks off on Saturday morning at the SRFC in Jinqiao, Pudong (map), host to the great and good of Shanghai’s expat sporting events (cricket sixes in two weeks, Gaelic football championships the weekend after -- watch this space). Twelve teams are set to compete -- the top four Chinese sevens teams, a Hong Kong team, two Japanese teams, three Shanghai teams, a Nanjing team and a Nantong team -- over Saturday and Sunday. The teams will be divided into two pools, with 24 pool matches played on Saturday and eight on Sunday, following which the knockout stages start taking things down to the final which will start at around 3:30 pm on Sunday. The three Shanghai sides manage to represent the majority of the top international rugby-playing nations (apologies to any Uruguayans out there), comprising as they do the British Bulldogs, the Wobblies (a name to strike fear into the heart of any opposition) -- a healthy mix of Aussies, Kiwis and South Africans -- and a French team whose name temporarily escaped the SRFC coordinator when Shanghaiist spoke to him (“I think it’s ‘Le’ something,” he said). Notorious local side The Hairy Crabs are conspicuously absent, but then we are fast approaching the time of year when the inhabitants of Yangcheng Lake (hairy crabs, for those of you uninitiated to the phenomenon) are besieged by chomping diners, so maybe they’ve gone into hiding. No one sneaked them out in their suitcase to Hong Kong, that’s for sure. Entry to watch the games comes in at a reasonable RMB 30, and for those of you out there of the female persuasion, keen to see “hot guys performing in their natural surroundings” as the flyer so delicately puts it, not only is entry free on Sunday, but ALL your drinks from the Guinness beer tent are, too. Bonza. On Sunday, a bus to the action leaves O’Malleys at 11 am.