British and Irish Lions sponsor HSBC on Friday defended the decision to kick-off the tour to Australia in Hong Kong, and denied having any influence in a fixture that has been dogged by criticism.
World Cup-winning England coach Clive Woodward was the latest to wade in with a scathing newspaper column in Britain in which he called the match against the Barbarians “a waste of time”.
Other UK newspapers said the high heat and humidity in Hong Kong made it an unsuitable preparation ground for the three Test battles to come in Wallaby territory, criticising the move as one driven by commercial gain.
They also rounded on the some 10,000 tickets that remained unsold at the 40,000-capacity venue, and the PR gaffe surrounding the dropping and subsequent inclusion of the only Hong Kong representative in the Baa-Baas squad, Rowan Varty.
But speaking exclusively to AFP on Friday, Giles Morgan, HSBC’s global head of sponsorship and events, said the decision to come to Hong Kong had been entirely made by the Lions’ management alone.
“We were approached by the Lions for a second tour,” Morgan said. “To sponsor the tour which included that they wanted to play a match against the Barbarians in Hong Kong on their way down to break up the journey.
“That was absolutely a Lions thing and that seemed to us to make a lot of sense.”
Morgan acknowledged it was convenient for the Hong Kong-based banking giant to be tour sponsor with such an historic match on its own doorstep.
“If the world of rugby was suggesting that a game was a good way for the Lions to get ready for their tour — and clearly we have a business here in Hong Kong — our customers are going to love it,” he agreed.
“And more importantly with what we are doing in rugby around Asia what a wonderful way to flagship rugby in Asia with probably the two ultimate brands, apart from New Zealand, in world rugby.”
Morgan reiterated that HSBC had no influence over rugby matters at any stage of the tour planning but suggested that lessons would be learned from the experience.
“Any of the issues that have happened, and we hear the criticism, they are really all rugby related whereas we are a bank. All these things like ticket pricing and sales, they are all the Lions’ business issues.
“I would still argue that if 30,000 people go to a warm-up game for the Lions, compared to 12,500, if you’re lucky, at Rustenberg in South Africa (the tour opener in 2009), then that’s quite good.
“The issues that I’ve read about are really for rugby to figure out and, perhaps more pertinently, learn for future tours about how to stage such events.”
HSBC defends Lions' decision to play in Hong Kong
