Rules and History of Rugby 7's
The Origins of Sevens, New Olympic Sport and how it’s Played
Aug 13, 2009
Rugby Sevens was invented in Melrose, Scotland as a means of raising money for the club. The date of the first ever Sevens tournament is thought, (no records remain), to have taken place in 1883, when local butcher, ‘Ned Haig’, came up with the idea when the Melrose club were struggling for cash. The home team fittingly won this first tournament and their name now adorns the Sevens rugby world Cup, known as the Melrose trophy.
A number of tournaments sprung up after the success of the Melrose tournament, including the Middlesex Sevens and the Snelling Sevens, but it was with the advent of a tournament in Hong Kong that the game really took off.
Inaugurated in 1976 after a long lunch between a potential sponsor and the chairman of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union, the Hong Kong Sevens quickly became a huge event, attracting top class players and tens of thousands of fans around the world.
Many of the greats of the game came to the attention of international fans in Hong Kong, including Jonah Lomu and Christian Cullen, whilst the increasingly specialised game created some legends of its own in Waseli Serevi and Eric Rush.
IRB World Series of Sevens Rugby
Following the success of the Hong Kong Sevens and similar events that had sprung up around the globe, the International Rugby Board founded a circuit of international Sevens tournaments which circle the globe each year.
The current circuit is:
- Dubai
- South Africa
- New Zealand
- USA
- Hong Kong
- Australia
- England
- Scotland
The series has been dominated by New Zealand and Fiji, but other less well known countries such as Kenya are now serious threats.
The rules or more properly the laws of Sevens are surprisingly similar to the full version of the game. It is played on exactly the same size pitch, the scoring system is the same and the general laws of the game fit both versions of the sport, just with fewer players and for a shorter duration.
As its name suggests, the game of Sevens is played by 7 players on each team and for 7 minutes each half. In tournament finals, this is extended to 10 minutes. Sin binnings are similarly truncated, lasting 2 minutes, but due to the extra space, are devastating to a team.
Virtually all Sevens matches are played in a tournament format over one, two or three days, with pool matches determining qualification for the knockout stages.
The seven who play in the game are usually selected from a squad of 10 and are split into 3 forwards and 4 backs, as opposed to the 8 and 7 split of the full version of the game.
Unlike the 15 a side game, where the team who has just conceded a score has to restart the game with a kick to the opposition, in Sevens, the scoring side restarts the game.
As the game is so short, keeping the ball in play is given a high priority, so conversions and penalty kicks are all drop kicks rather than place kicks.
Other than that, the game is the same, but played at a lung bursting speed.
Rugby has today been recommended by the International Committee for acceptance as an Olympic Sport in 2016, a decision which is expected to be ratified by the full IOC congress in Copenhagen in October.
Rugby has featured in the Olympics on four occasions from 1900-1924, with the USA being the reigning Olympic Champions, having won in Antwerp . The physical demands of the sport preclude the full version of the game from being incorporated, but sevens is seen as having great potential and is already played in the Commonwealth Games.
There are a number of criteria by which sports are measured whilst being considered for inclusion in the Olympics. There should be a wide variety of competitive countries, which the IRB Sevens circuit’s sixteen and twenty four team tournaments has demonstrated. it should be played by both male and female teams. The inaugural Women’s World Cup was held alongside theMelrose Cup in Dubai this year. The Olympics should also be the pinnacle of the sport. It is believed that the IRB have offered to scrap the Melrose Cup should Sevens gain acceptance into the Olympic family.
Rugby Sevens Accepted for Rio 2016
Rugby Sevens has now been accepted as an Olympic sport and will be part of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
 |
