Australian Sevens Explained

Last Season:2024 Australia Sevens
Sport:Rugby sevens
Country:Australia
Venue:Perth Rectangular Stadium
Champion: (2024)
Most Champs: (6 titles)

The Australia Sevens is an international rugby sevens tournament that was first played in 1986. Currently hosted as the Sydney Sevens, the event is part of the World Rugby Sevens Series.[1] The tournament was held in Brisbane, in Adelaide, and on the Gold Coast in previous seasons.

History

The NSW Rugby Union hosted an international sevens tournament at Concord Oval in Sydney from 1986 to 1988, as part of Australia's Bicentennial celebrations. The Australian Rugby Football Union, later the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) and now known as Rugby Australia, continued the event for a further year in 1989.[2]

The 2000 Brisbane Sevens was the first Australian Sevens tournament in the World Sevens Series run by the International Rugby Board (IRB), now known as World Rugby. It was the 7th tournament of the series in the inaugural 1999-2000 season and was hosted at Lang Park. Fiji played Australia in the final, and won the match in the dying seconds, thanks to a brilliant try to Waisale Serevi. Brisbane's hosting rights for 2001 were withdrawn by the IRB because of the Australian Federal Government's sporting boycott of Fiji, imposed after the 2000 Fijian coup d'état. After sanctions were lifted later in 2001, the remaining two tournaments of Brisbane's four-year hosting agreement were played and won by Australia and England in 2002 and 2003 respectively. Australia was not awarded a World Sevens tournament for the next three years.

Adelaide secured the hosting rights for the 2006/07 season. The 2007 Adelaide Sevens took place in April of that year, replacing the Singapore Sevens in the calendar. The tournament was hosted at Adelaide Oval for five seasons, with the last edition of the Adelaide Sevens being held in 2011.

In April 2011, the ARU announced that the Australian leg of the Sevens World Series would be played at Skilled Park on the Gold Coast for at least the next four years. The tournament was scheduled for the early part of the 2011/12 season, which meant that two World Sevens events were played in Australia in 2011. The Gold Coast tournament was initially named the "International Rugby Sevens Gold Coast", but was later rebranded as the Gold Coast Sevens.

The Gold Coast attendances for the 2013 and 2014 events were lower than expected, and in March 2015 the ARU announced that Sydney would host the event for the next four years from the 2015–16 season.

With the closure and rebuilding of Sydney Football Stadium, both men's and women's events for the Sydney Sevens tournament were moved to Sydney Showground Stadium in 2019,[3] and Western Sydney Stadium for 2020.[4]

Results

Invitational tournament

YearVenueFinalPlacings
SydneyWinnerScoreRunner-upPlateBowl ShieldRef
1986Concord Oval32–0[5]
[6]
1987 Concord Oval22–10[7]
1988 Concord Oval22–12[8]
1989 Concord Oval26–16[9]
[10]

World Rugby Sevens Series

YearVenueFinalPlacings
BrisbaneWinnerScoreRunner-upPlateBowlShield
Lang Park24–21
Cancelled by IRB due to Australian Government sanctions against Fiji.
Ballymore28–0
Ballymore28–14
AdelaideWinnerScoreRunner-upPlateBowlShield
Adelaide Oval21–7
Adelaide Oval15–7
Adelaide Oval26–7
Adelaide Oval38–10
Adelaide Oval28–20
Gold CoastWinnerScoreRunner-upPlateBowlShield
Robina Stadium26–12
Robina Stadium32–14
Robina Stadium40–19
Robina Stadium31–24
SydneyWinnerScoreRunner-upThirdFourthFifth
Sydney Football Stadium27–24
Sydney Football Stadium29–14
Sydney Football Stadium29–0
Sydney Showground21–5
Bankwest Stadium12–10
World Series tournaments planned for Sydney were cancelled in 2021[11] and 2022,[12] due to COVID-19.
Sydney Football Stadium38–0
PerthWinnerScoreRunner-upThirdFourthFifth
2024Perth Rectangular Stadium31–5

Team records

Summary of results in the Australian leg of the World Rugby Sevens Series:

TeamWinnerRunner-upThirdFourth
6 ('00, '07, '11, '12, '14, '20)1 ('03)1 ('23)2 ('19, '24)
5 ('11, '13, '16, '19, '23)4 ('02, '08, '11, '12)1 ('17)
3 ('08, '09, '17)4 ('11, '18, '20, '23)
2 ('02, '18)4 ('00, '13, '16, '24)1 ('17)
1 ('10)2 ('07, '14)
1 ('03)1 ('17)1 ('19)1 ('20)
class="table-rh" 1 ('24)1 ('18)
2 ('10, '19)1 ('20) 1 ('18)
1 ('09)
1 ('24)
1 ('23)
Updated to the 2024 tournament

Notes:

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Sydney takes over from Gold Coast as Sevens host. The Roar. 9 March 2015.
  2. http://www.rugby7.com/emil103.asp Sydney 1986–
  3. Sydney 7s has a new home in 2019 . . 25 May 2018 . 6 August 2018.
  4. Web site: HSBC Sydney 7s heads to Bankwest Stadium . Rugby Australia . https://web.archive.org/web/20190604130537/https://australia.rugby/news/2019/06/02/sydney-7s-stadium-announcement . 4 June 2019 . 3 June 2019.
  5. April 1986 . All Blacks: World 7s Champs . Ed . Hagerty . New York . 6–10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170526050253/http://emilito.org/rugby/USA7s/eagle7s-history/dox/1986-04%20USM%20at%20Sydney7s-p6-10.pdf . 26 May 2017 . Rugby.
  6. Web site: 1986 . Annual Report . Australian Rugby . 7–8 . 6 August 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160330112037/https://www.clearinghouseforsport.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/142560/Australian_Rugby_Football_Union_Annual_Report_1986.pdf . 30 March 2016.
  7. Web site: 1987 . Annual Report . Australian Rugby . 7 . 6 August 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160330112054/https://www.clearinghouseforsport.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/142561/Australian_Rugby_Football_Union_Annual_Report_1987.pdf . 30 March 2016.
  8. Web site: 1988 . Annual Report . Australian Rugby . 7 . 6 August 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160330112108/https://www.clearinghouseforsport.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/142562/Australian_Rugby_Football_Union_Annual_Report_1988.pdf . 30 March 2016.
  9. News: 15 March 1989 . Gardner comeback in Sevens . The Sydney Morning Herald . 9 July 2016 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20160709132832/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/122763835/ . 9 July 2016.
  10. Web site: 1989 . Annual Report . Australian Rugby . 12 . 6 August 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160330112122/https://www.clearinghouseforsport.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/142565/Australian_Rugby_Football_Union_Annual_Report_1989.pdf . 30 March 2016.
  11. Web site: 2021 Hamilton, Sydney Sevens cancelled due to COVID-19 . ESPN . https://web.archive.org/web/20210904133538/https://www.espn.com.au/rugby/story/_/id/29789312/2021-hamilton-sydney-sevens-cancelled-due-covid-19 . 4 September 2021 . 1 September 2020.
  12. Web site: Ekin . Kim . Four stages of World Rugby Sevens Series cancelled in space of an hour . Rugby Pass . https://web.archive.org/web/20210903110133/https://www.rugbypass.com/news/four-stages-of-world-series-sevens-cancelled-in-space-of-an-hour/ . 3 September 2021 . 3 September 2021.