Australian Sevens

Australian Sevens

Sydney Sevens logo for 2016
Sport	Rugby sevens
Inaugural season	1986  (Sydney)
No. of teams	16
Most recent champion(s)	New Zealand
Most titles	Fiji  (5 times)

The Australian Sevens is an international rugby sevens tournament. Currently hosted as the Sydney Sevens, it is part of the Sevens World Series.^[1] In previous seasons the event was held on the Gold Coast, in Adelaide and in Brisbane.

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 Union 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). It was the 7th tournament of the series in the inaugural 1999-2000 season and was hosted at Ballymore. Fiji played Australia in the final, and won the match in the dying seconds, thanks to a brilliant try to Waisale Serevi.^[3] Brisbane's hosting rights for 2001 were withdrawn by the IRB because of the Australian Federal Government's sporting boycott of Fiji,^[4] imposed after the 2000 Fijian coup d'état.^[5] After sanctions were lifted later in 2001,^[6] the remaining two tournaments of Brisbane's four year hosting agreement were played and won by Australia and England in 2002 and 2003 respectively.^[7][8] 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.^[9] The tournament was hosted at Adelaide Oval for five seasons, with the last edition of the Adelaide Sevens being held in 2011.

Logo of the
Gold Coast 7s

In April 2011, the Australian Rugby Union 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.^[10] 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",^[10] but was later rebranded as the Gold Coast Sevens.^[11]

The Gold Coast attendances for the 2013 and 2014 events were lower than expected,^[12][13] and in March 2015 the ARU announced that Sydney would host the event for the next four years from the 2015–16 season.^[13][14]

Results

  A blue box around the year indicates tournaments included in the World Rugby Sevens Series.

Sydney

Year	Venue	Winner	Final Score	Runner-up	Semi-finalists		Plate winner	Refs
1986	Concord Oval	New Zealand	32–0	Australia	Argentina	Wales	n/a	[15]
1987	Concord Oval	Australia	22–10	New Zealand	South Korea	Fiji	Western Samoa	[16]
1988	Concord Oval	New Zealand	22–12	Scotland	Fiji	Australia	Spain	[17]
1989	Concord Oval	New Zealand	26–16	Western Samoa	Australia	Fiji	n/a	[18][19]

Brisbane Sevens

Year	Venue	Cup			Plate	Bowl	Shield	Refs
		Winner	Final Score	Runner-up	Winner	Winner	Winner
1999/00 Details	Lang Park	Fiji	24–21	Australia	Argentina	Tonga	n/a	[20]
2000/01 Details	Tournament cancelled by IRB in response to the Australian Government's sporting sanctions against Fiji.							[4]
2001/02 Details	Ballymore	Australia	28–0	New Zealand	Fiji	Cook Islands	Canada
2002/03 Details	Ballymore	England	28–14	Fiji	Australia	Tonga	Cook Islands

Adelaide Sevens

Year	Venue	Cup			Plate	Bowl	Shield	Refs
		Winner	Final Score	Runner-up	Winner	Winner	Winner
2006/07 Details	Adelaide Oval	Fiji	21–7	Samoa	Australia	Wales	Canada
2007/08 Details	Adelaide Oval	South Africa	15–7	New Zealand	Tonga	Argentina	Wales
2008/09 Details	Adelaide Oval	South Africa	26–7	Kenya	England	Samoa	United States
2009/10 Details	Adelaide Oval	Samoa	38–10	United States	New Zealand	England	Japan
2010/11 Details	Adelaide Oval	New Zealand	28–20	South Africa	Wales	United States	Japan

Gold Coast Sevens

Year	Venue	Cup			Plate	Bowl	Shield	Refs
		Winner	Final Score	Runner-up	Winner	Winner	Winner
2011/12 Details	Robina Stadium	Fiji	26–12	New Zealand	Wales	Argentina	Papua New Guinea
2012/13 Details	Robina Stadium	Fiji	32–14	New Zealand	Argentina	Spain	Scotland
2013/14 Details	Robina Stadium	New Zealand	40–19	Australia	Fiji	France	United States
2014/15 Details	Robina Stadium	Fiji	31–24	Samoa	New Zealand	France	Canada

Sydney Sevens

Year	Venue	Cup			Plate	Bowl	Shield	Refs
		Winner	Final Score	Runner-up	Winner	Winner	Winner
2015/16 Details	Sydney Football Stadium	New Zealand	27–24	Australia	Argentina	Canada	Wales

See also

• Australian Women's Sevens
• Rugby union in Australia

References

1. "Sydney takes over from Gold Coast as Sevens host". The Roar. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
2. Sydney 1986–. Rugby 7.
3. "Brisbane Sevens draw". espnscrum.com. 16 January 2002. Archived from the original on 8 December 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
4. Funnell, Camille (15 January 2001). "Australia misses out on hosting World Rugby Sevens tournament". abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 7 December 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
5. Bormann, Trevor (18 July 2000). "Australia places 'smart' sanctions on Fiji". abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 29 September 2004. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
6. Downer, Alexander (5 October 2001). "Sanctions Against Fiji are Lifted" (Press release). Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on 28 September 2004. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
7. "IRB Sevens III - Brisbane, Australia. 3/2/2002 - 3/3/2002". rugby7.com. 2002. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
8. "IRB Sevens IV - Brisbane, Australia. 2/1/2003 - 3/1/2003". rugby7.com. 2003. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
9. "Adelaide Sevens" (Press release). rugby.com.au. Archived from the original on 29 April 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-07.
10. "Gold Coast to Become New Home for Australian Sevens" (Press release). Australian Rugby Union. 13 April 2011. Archived from the original on 11 October 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
11. "Gold Coast Sevens". Australian Rugby Union. Archived from the original on 6 August 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
12. Tucker, Jim (13 October 2013). "ARU boss Bill Pulver considers switching Gold Coast Sevens to Brisbane or Sydney after poor crowds". The Courier Mail. Archived from the original on 7 December 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
13. "Sevens World Series moves to Sydney in 2015-16 season". The Sydney Morning Herald. 9 March 2015. Archived from the original on 9 March 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
14. "HSBC partners with World Rugby for record-breaking sevens properties". Australian Rugby. 30 June 2015. Archived from the original on 30 June 2015. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
15. "Annual Report" (PDF 2.3 MB). Australian Rugby. 1986. pp. 7–8. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 March 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
16. "Annual Report" (PDF). Australian Rugby. 1987. p. 7. Archived from the original on 30 March 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
17. "Annual Report" (PDF 2.3 MB). Australian Rugby. 1988. p. 7. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 March 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
18. "Gardner comeback in Sevens". The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 March 1989. Archived from the original on 9 July 2016. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
19. "Annual Report" (PDF 2.9 MB). Australian Rugby. 1989. p. 12. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 March 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
20. "Sevens loss no disgrace". Illawarra Mercury. Fairfax. 21 February 2000. p. 34. Archived from the original on 27 May 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2016.

External links

• Official website
• Adelaide IRB Sevens profile on UR7s.com
• Australian Sevens
• Australians get behind the Adelaide Sevens