All Blacks: Bledisloe Cup returning to Hong Kong

Hong Kong will host the fourth Bledisloe Cup test on October 30. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand and Australia will play a Bledisloe Cup rugby match in Hong Kong in October, their second test meeting in the city and their third in Asia in the past three years.

The match will be played October 30 at Hong Kong Stadium at the invitation of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union and will be the fourth match of this year's Bledisloe Cup series.

The All Blacks and Wallabies met in Hong Kong in 2008 in the first test played between the teams outside New Zealand or Australia, other than during a World Cup.

The teams played a Bledisloe Cup test last year in Tokyo as a means to increase test revenues and to build rugby's audience in Asia.

"We always wanted to build on the tremendous success of the historic 2008 encounter, and are thrilled to bring the All Blacks and Wallabies back to Hong Kong," HKRFU executive director Robert Knight said in a statement Tuesday.

"Bringing the Bledisloe Cup back to Hong Kong will reinforce our position as a global rugby destination."

Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill said the match in Hong Kong would build rugby's global profile.

"The Bledisloe Cup is an event of major international significance," he said. "To take the game to Hong Kong for a second time in three years - and we went to Tokyo last year - is a sign that we are serious about embracing the Asian market.

"It's in rugby's global interests to ensure our footprint becomes more distinct in Asia, and to build on the wonderful advances the Hong Kong Sevens has made for the code.

"Showcasing a fiercely contested Bledisloe Cup test, one of the most keenly watched clashes in all of international rugby, achieves that objective and also provides a unique `neutral' setting for the Wallabies and All Blacks."

The All Blacks have won both previous tests in Hong Kong and Tokyo.

- AP