World Sevens Series

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The World Sevens Series is an international rugby union sevens series of tournaments run by the International Rugby Board featuring national sevens teams. The tournaments span the globe, with the following events included in the 2005-06 tour:

• Dubai (Dubai Exiles Rugby Ground): December 1-2, 2005
• South Africa, aka George (Outeniqua Park, George): December 9-10, 2005
• New Zealand (Westpac Stadium, Wellington): February 3-4, 2006
• USA (The Home Depot Center, Carson, California): February 11-12, 2006
• Hong Kong (Hong Kong Stadium): March 31-April 2, 2006
• Singapore (National Stadium): April 8-9, 2006
• Paris (Stade Jean-Bouin): May 27-28, 2006
• London (Twickenham): June 3-4, 2006

In 2005-06, the most famous Sevens event, the Hong Kong Sevens, returned to the series after a one-year hiatus in 2004-05 for the IRB Rugby World Cup Sevens, which was held in Hong Kong in March 2005 and won by Fiji.

Sevens is a stripped-down version of rugby union, with seven players on each side rather than fifteen. Games are much shorter, seven or ten minutes each half, and tend to be very fast-paced, open affairs. Sevens is traditionally played in a two-day tournament format, with the Hong Kong Sevens being the most famous.

New Zealand and Fiji are traditionally the strongest teams, although in recent years Australia, Samoa, England, South Africa, Argentina and France have all won tournaments.

Previous Series Winners

• 2000 - New Zealand
• 2001 - New Zealand
• 2002 - New Zealand
• 2003 - New Zealand
• 2004 - New Zealand
• 2005 - New Zealand
• 2006 - Fiji

The season

In a normal event, 16 teams are entered; in Hong Kong, 24 teams enter. In each tournament, the teams are divided into pools of four teams, who play a round-robin within the pool. Points are awarded in each pool on a different schedule from most rugby tournaments—3 for a win, 2 for a draw, 1 for a loss. The first tiebreaker is difference in points scored during the tournament.

Four trophies are awarded in each tournament, except for Hong Kong. In descending order of prestige, they are the Cup, whose winner is the overall tournament champion, Plate, Bowl and Shield. In Hong Kong, the Shield is not awarded. Each trophy is awarded at the end of a knockout tournament.

In a normal event, the top two teams in each pool advance to the Cup competition. The four quarterfinal losers drop into the bracket for the Plate. The Bowl is contested by the third-place finishers in each pool, while the Shield is contested by the last-place teams from each pool.

In Hong Kong, the six pool winners, plus the two highest-finishing second-place teams, advance to the Cup. The Plate participants are the eight highest-ranked teams remaining, while the lowest eight drop to the Bowl.

Points schedule

The season championship is determined by points earned in each tournament. For most events, points are awarded on the following schedule:

• Cup winner (1st place): 20 points
• Cup runner-up: 16 points
• Losing Cup semifinalists: 12 points
• Plate winner (5th place): 8 points
• Plate runner-up: 6 points
• Losing Plate semifinalists: 4 points
• Bowl winner (9th place): 2 points

Points are awarded on a different schedule in Hong Kong:

• Cup winner: 30 points
• Cup runner-up: 24 points
• Losing Cup semifinalists: 18 points
• Losing Cup quarterfinalists: 8 points
• Plate winner (9th place): 4 points
• Plate runner-up: 3 points
• Bowl winner (17th place): 1 point

See also

• Rugby sevens
• Hong Kong Sevens

External links

• [The official tournament homepage]
• [US-based sevens website]
• [World Sevens news from Planet Rugby]