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Asian Games (both sevens and fifteen-a-side are played.)
World Games
Commonwealth Games
Main article: Rugby sevens at the Commonwealth Games
Rugby sevens has been played at three Commonwealth Games since its first appearance, at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Appearing in 2002 (Manchester) and 2006 (Melbourne), it is now considered a "Core" sport by the Commonwealth Games Federation, necessitating its appearance at all future games, including the upcoming 2010 Games (Delhi), and the 2014 Games (Glasgow). It is one of the two male-only sports at the Commonwealth Games, the other being boxing. Buy and Sell rugby tickets through yourticketmarket.com, London Sevens Tickets are available here. Buy and Sell London Sevens Tickets and all the Rugby Tickets here.
Rugby World Cup Sevens — Sponsored by the IRB, and held every four years, this is the highest prize in the Sevens version of rugby union. However, due to the upcoming introduction of sevens to the Olympics in 2016, the next edition in 2013 will be the last.
IRB Sevens World Series, which currently includes:
Adelaide Sevens (Australia Sevens)
Dubai Sevens
Edinburgh Sevens (also known as "Murrayfield Sevens" and "Scotland Sevens")
Hong Kong Sevens (Original event)
London Sevens
South Africa Sevens (Also known as "Stellenbosch Sevens" etc)
USA Sevens
Wellington Sevens (Original event; New Zealand International Sevens)
Borders Sevens Circuit, including the Melrose Sevens
New Zealand National Rugby Sevens Tournament, also known as the Pub Charity Rugby Sevens is held annually at Queenstown, New Zealand. The tournament features the top 16 Provincial Representative sides in the country who qualify for the tournament via 3 regional qualifying events. Of the 3 regions, the Northern and Central zones are both located in the North Island while the Southern zone encompasses the entire South Island.
National Schools Sevens - held at Rosslyn Park, in England, the biggest sevens competition in the world. News, photos and up to the minute results can be found on the official website. Results can also be seen on The Schools' Rugby Website
Due to the success of the format, the ongoing Hong Kong Sevens was launched three years later. In 1993, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, in which the Melrose Cup is contested, was launched. Three of the best known sevens competitions are the Hong Kong Sevens, Wellington Sevens, and the Dubai Sevens which now make up part of the IRB Sevens World Series.
The Scottish connection continued in the foundation of the Hong Kong Sevens in the 1970s, founded largely by expats such as "Tokkie" Smith, and in England, London Scottish RFC was strongly involved in the Middlesex Sevens from the start. The Hong Kong Sevens were ahead of their time, and an influential force in the modernisation of rugby union, for example, the Hong Kong Sevens were one of the first rugby union tournaments to attract major sponsorship, when the airline Cathay Pacific sponsored the 1976 tournament. They also provided a level of cosmopolitan international competition, which tended not to exist in rugby before the first Rugby World Cup in 1987, especially since Hong Kong was not seen as one of the "Big Eight", and other than some involvement with France, the British Commonwealth teams tended to be notoriously clannish. By 1986, the Hong Kong Sevens were held up as a positive example to others:
"This Seven-a-Side international tournament is without a doubt the most spectacular, exotic, best organized Rugby competition of its kind in the world, and it has consistently produced the highest standard of Sevens Rugby seen anywhere.
"I was not surprised on my first visit to see quality play from the Australian, New Zealand, Fijian, and British players, but I was staggered at the amazingly high quality play produced by countries I never even knew played Rugby. South Korea and Western Samoa were every bit as good as Japan and Tonga. Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore found their lack of sheer size and bulk an insuperable handicap, but against each other they displayed a range of running and handling skills which demanded unqualified praise. Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and the Solomon Islands were inevitably outgunned by the teams from the major Rugby-playing nations but they still have a remarkably high level of skill which promises well for the future of the game.
"The week of the Hong Kong tournament allows 24 Rugby-playing nations to intermingle for several days, and the huge cross-fertilisation of ideas can only be beneficial in the long term for the emerging nations. After the first day of the play when the top eight seeded teams meet the smaller fish in a pool system, the second day is divided into three different competitions... The strength of this great tournament is that on the opening day the most famous players in the world share a pitch with unknown opponents from countries where Rugby is a minority sport... While tournaments like the Hong Kong Sevens continue to be played, Rugby administrators can be confident that the game will continue to thrive in over 100 countries worldwide."
However, despite this apparent diversity, some of the same old problems which had dogged international rugby were still manifest in the Hong Kong Sevens in the 1980s - for example, in a photograph of the Hong Kong vs Bahrain game at the tournament in 1984, the teams do not appear to include anyone who is ethnically Arabian or Chinese, instead both teams are quite clearly of northern European ethnic origin.
Rugby sevens continues to be popular in the Scottish Borders, where the ten most prestigious of these tournaments make up a league competition known as the "Kings of the Sevens".Sevens has also taken strong root in the South Sea island nations of Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa.
In many minor rugby nations, such as the case of rugby union in Poland, development, has tended to concentrate on rugby sevens as a means of introducing the sport to people. Rugby sevens has become popular in places such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai, which are not so successful in the full fifteen-a-side code.
In honour of the role of Melrose RFC in the creation of rugby sevens, the club was inducted along with Haig to the IRB Hall of Fame in 2008. Buy and Sell rugby tickets through yourticketmarket.com, London Sevens Tickets are available here. Buy and Sell London Sevens Tickets and all the Rugby Tickets here.
