What started as a fundraising event in Melrose, Scotland in 1883 is now fast becoming a global phenomenon. Sevens rugby, the abbreviated form of traditional 15-a-side rugby, is fast and entertaining.
Each team has seven players on the field and the game is played in seven-minute halves.
Club invitational tournaments are flourishing in areas where rugby has traditionally had little presence, including Malaysia, Thailand, The Netherlands, Cuba and Mexico just to name a few.
It is now included in the Commonwealth Games, the Asian Games, the Pacific Games and the Pan-American Games and will be included in the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. A sevens Grand Prix series is played in Europe that includes teams from Russia, Portugal, Germany, Romania, Spain and even Moldova. But the Big Daddy is the International Rugby Board (IRB) HSBC Sevens World Series.
The IRB Sevens World Series is a nine-tournament competition played from November to May. It kicks off on the Gold Coast in Australia followed by Dubai, Port Elizabeth in South Africa, Wellington, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Glasgow, finishing in London at Twickenham.
Women will be playing on the IRB circuit in the next season. It is rumoured that Mar del Plata in Argentina will be added to the circuit when it expands to 10 tournaments at the end of 2012. Such is the popularity of sevens that over 500,000 spectators attended the Sevens Series in 2011. Tickets for the Wellington tournament sold out in six minutes.
Do you like tries? There are more tries scored in the nine Sevens Series weekends than there are in two seasons of the NRL. Don’t like games involving penalty goals? Teams rarely kick for goal, they head for the try line.
Do you like big hits? Watch a match between Fiji and Samoa, it’s brutal. Do you like tense, edge-of-the-seat entertainment? Rugby sevens delivers every tournament. Your team can be losing 14-0 with two minutes to go, yet they can still win.
Kevin Sheedy said “After being locked up in the AFL for 40 years, I’ve gone out and seen the world … and stumbled upon a concept that is so brilliant it’s heading to the Olympics – rugby sevens. I had three days in Hong Kong and while I know it wasn’t pure rugby, it was pure entertainment. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Part of the sevens appeal is the party atmosphere, which is just as entertaining as the rugby.
Can rugby sevens bring the warring codes of rugby league, Australian Rules and rugby union together?
In Australia and New Zealand it is primarily a summer sport. Sevens rugby does not need to go head to head and compete with the winter codes for players, spectators or the media. An Australian domestic sevens circuit played over summer would be attractive to broadcasters (I’m currently developing an article on this.)
Rugby league has already made a contribution to sevens. The coach of the Australian sevens team (the Thunderbolts) is the former rugby league international Michael O’Connor. Although to date no NRL players have made a full transition to rugby sevens, the rugby league hotbed and Benji Marshall’s alma mater Kebra Park High has won the Australian Schoolboys sevens tournament for the last two years.
Many talk of developing a rugby union/league hybrid. There is no need, it already exists. The open space on a sevens field and the flamboyant Quade Cooper or Benji Marshall style of play appeals to spectators from both codes.
Kevin Sheedy, AFL’s thinker, has praised the game and the game will appeal to AFL followers more than league or union 15s do. Similar to an AFL game, rugby sevens has flow, the ball is always being contested, and scoring is fast.
Play moves at high speed from try-line to try-line, and attacking play uses the whole width of the field. Sevens rugby is extremely demanding to play. AFL players are renowned for being the fittest footballers in Australia. I would not be surprised if the conditioning coaches from AFL teams could lend a hand to improve the fitness of sevens players in the near future.
Rugby sevens is pure entertainment and even better to play. People are not going to hand in their Collingwood or Broncos memberships and clamour to join a sevens club, but that’s not the point. This is an exciting, action packed, fun filled day that is also tailored made for television.
It’s there to enjoy if you want to embrace it. Perhaps if the codes do work together we could bring home the gold medal in 2016.
trakl
Guest
But "league" fans and players need to have the "mickey" taken out of them on a forum where they might be present, surely? Why don't you do that? I wonder, for example, how people in Australia see the typical South African rugby union fan or player? Compared with how they are seen by some here in England I should imagine that "bogan" or "mungo" would be seen as a compliment!
Bakkies
Guest
It's called taking the mickey out of loig fans and players.
trakl
Guest
If that's how the "bogans" pronounce "league" why is it that you pronounce it that way to readers of these forums? Are they all "bogans" too?
BraveHeart
Guest
7's is the appetizer ...15's is the Main course :)
Bakkies
Guest
It's better. The players play more often more teams are competitive. 15 years ago you wouldn't have thought that Wales will be RWC 7s champs
chris
Guest
It's sad if 7's is becoming technical. BTW i wonder if Aussie Rules players also play Touch Rugby.
chuck gold coast
Guest
Seven rugby is global we don't have to grovel to any other code to join the world circuit its growing with 72 nations playing this game and 16 to qualify to play in the sevens circuit . Sevens played by highly super fit athletics full rugby field is hard to cover .. Australia think that they can better their chances by winning by inviting other codes by all means after all its about competing against the best remember the A.R.U.are under I.R.B. umbrella and now that all becomes hypothetical.
Bakkies
Guest
it's how the bogans pronounce league.
trakl
Guest
Why do you always refer to rugby league players as "loigies"?
AC
Guest
I wish there was a thumbs up button for this comment. Too true!
Bakkies
Guest
How many people on here have actually noticed that 7s now requires technical skill at breakdowns (it's not a free for all and the Aussie side regularly gets pinged at the breakdown), link play, playmaking, lineout work, scrummaging and even kicking. These are the main reasons why Fiji is no longer king at 7s and more technical sides like England, Samoa, Argentina, SA and NZ perform well at it. It's changed a lot since the days of Campo appearing in Hong Kong playing against Serevi running rings around the opposition. 7s is a short form of Rugby not a hybrid version. We need to get more Aboriginal players involved not loigies and AFL players.
Sam
Guest
It's a great article and I tend to agree that 7s could be the springboard for Rugby Union. I'm only recently taken it up as a spectator sport, and it's a great spectactle. That said, if we're looking for a sport to unify League and Union, surely it has to be Touch Football? It's a participation sport, and most Australian Cities have decent competitions. The lack of contact means it can be a mixed sport which makes it more inclusive. It's a fast sport requiring deft skills and the more flair-ish skills we only occasionally see from a Genia. Most importantly, there's no need to RL players to adapt to the ruck and maul.
chris
Guest
Would love to see League,Union and even AFL on 1 field.
The Great G Nepia
Guest
I'm not sure if its correct 2 say league has had the monied elite against them. Most of the nrl and superleague clubs r owned by very wealthy individuals, and for nearly two decades the game has been propped up by murdoch, one of the world's richest men, so i can't see any evidence the monied elite is gainst league, in fact its the opposite. They say leagues the peoples game but the reality is union is the game OWNED by the people, for the people. Im not saying one game is better than the other, as i enjoy both, but theres a lot myths out there about union and league, as your comment bears out, which do not reflect fact and reality but which are nevertheless accepted blindly by the masses as being the truth.
p.Tah
Guest
RK, I agree its good we are finally contracting the 7s players. I posted a long comment about a domestic comp to set up a season to season comp that may lure people during the summer months. For some reason that post... and many of mine keep disappearing today. Am I being moderated without being told?! or perhaps my posts are so brilliant and insightful that the roar dare not publish them for fear of literally blowing the mind of readers... probably not, just a technical glitch
Jiggles
Roar Guru
Not really a fan of 7s, but I understand what good it is doing for rugby so thats ok by me. Nice article though.
p.Tah
Guest
"by allowing them to win games by scoring last-minute tries." too soon Peterlala... too soon...
p.Tah
Guest
In my view its about bringing money into the sport of 7s in this country to help develop our national team and attract and keep the top talent so we are regularily winning at the top level.
p.Tah
Guest
I agree ted. But I think the newcomers (Super rugby, NRL, AFL) to 7s should play against each other in a domestic competition (see below) first over a number of seasons so we are not shown up by the likes of NZ or Samoa
p.Tah
Guest
Whites, I don't think it needs to occur every 4 years, I think it can be achieve every summer... see my long winded post below.