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Sevens: Rugby’s salvation or its death knell?

19th April, 2016
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Quade Cooper playing for Australia's sevens teams. Should traditionalists lighten up? (Martin Seras Lima)
Roar Guru
19th April, 2016
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2124 Reads

Sevens is rugby’s global mass-market product. It’s easily consumed; it’s short and relatively simple to grasp for the uninitiated – very much like T20 cricket.

Sevens might well be rugby’s financial and participation expansion tool but is it destroying the traditional format?

I should start by saying that I really enjoy sevens. I have spent the last two weeks on a personally imposed hardship posting to Hong Kong and Singapore to document the format from the front lines. It has been entertaining and harsh on my body.

Over these two weeks I lost count of the number of times people would ask about the technicality of certain infringements or lack of officiating, and the overarching response from the numerous people I spoke to was, “that’s sevens!”

This nonchalant attitude may well have its origins in Hong Kong, sevens’ oldest, most famous and original tournament. Everyone knows that what happens in Hong Kong stays in Hong Kong but the organisers of sevens missed that call out and decided to apply the HK partytime attitude to the whole format, forever more. Who could really blame them?

Its obvious that sevens is much more lenient on many full arm indiscretions, and that is mostly to do with the speed of the game. Seven’s appeal comes from its short length and speed of play. It is in itself an acknowledgement that fifteen-aside rugby can often be slow and over officiated.

Similarly, it has long been World Rugby’s fear that the sheer number of technical rules, and the interpretation involved in officiating them could destroy rugby’s appeal as a global sport.

I can understand this fear and it is true that fifteen-aside rugby does constantly battle with the fine line between letter of the law interpretation and free-flowing running rugby. Both forms of the game desire a free flowing spirit, but in Sevens it is almost impossible to be bogged down.

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Sevens is still rugby union. The general laws still apply with some obvious variations. I had the following question asked of me a number of times. Why is it then that coming in from the side of the ruck and not rolling away occur almost constantly?

These always come down to interpretation and in sevens it is true that there are often moments where a ruck is not technically formed or the like.

Why do I care so much? I think it seems strange that some of the fundamental laws of rugby are often disregarded. I understand fully the lack of scrum infringement care, the small advantage and the almost zero care for taking a tap on the mark that can be oh so irritating in fifteens.

Has the importance of speed taken over from the rules of the sport?

As we all gear up for rugby’s Olympic inclusion and global expansion, its clear World Rugby is not looking for a return to extreme officiating. As much as I like sevens and the buzz it creates in the cities I have watched it in, it is kind of sad that its growth attacks most of what I hold dear as a rugby fan. But I am also a big fan of more people playing and enjoying rugby so if that is the cost, then so be it!

It comes down to perspective. I suppose I will get over it. For myself and a number of others with whom I spoke, fifteens rugby has been a constant in our lives. Seven’s is not a new thing, but maybe rugbyites like myself need to move on from shouting at the screen for someone to roll away and just let the game flow.

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