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 was not seen as one of the "Big Eight". Twenty-four winners have been confirmed across six men’s and women’s award categories. The women's gold medal was won by Australia, with New Zealand taking silver and Canada bronze.[54]. Sevens is played on a standard rugby union playing field. Keep up to date with the Women’s and the Men's Sevens Series. Other tournaments were played over the next few years across the North before being replaced by a nine-a-side game. Unlike rugby fifteens, where a player's number corresponds to his position, numbering in rugby sevens is more flexible. This is unlike American football in which the posts are behind the back of the goal line. The International Olympic Committee voted in 2009 to include rugby sevens on the program for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Rugby union was formerly played at the World Games, but this has ceased as rugby is now an Olympic sport. Rugby sevens (commonly known as simply sevens), and originally known as seven-a-side rugby, is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40 minute halves. The first-ever sevens match was played at The Greenyards, the Melrose ground, where it was well received. Official HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series App. [59] Two additional events were planned for the 2013–14 series, but in the end only one of these events, in Brazil, took place. Kick-offs: in sevens, the team which has just scored kicks off, rather than the conceding team, as in fifteen-a-side. New zealand has won 4 gold medals and one silver medal. In major competitions, there are additional officials present (in-goal touch judges) to judge success of kicks at goals, which means the game is not delayed waiting for touch judges to move into position to judge conversion attempts. For the variant of association football, see. “Can't tell a scrum from a sin bin?”, Today.com, Lexi Dwyer, August 9, 2016. [31], For a long time the English Rugby Union held against rugby sevens being played in England. “10 Principles of Playing Good 7’s”, Rugby Thoughts, Billy Millard, Accessed October 17, 2016. Beginning with the 2018 edition, which was held in San Francisco, United States, the World Cup Sevens is held in the middle of the Summer Olympic cycle, two years after each Olympics. [58] The international series was officially christened as the IRB Women's Sevens World Series in an IRB announcement on 4 October 2012. For the 2014–15 series, China dropped from the schedule, while Canada and England hosted new events. [21] It was close to the Scottish Borders and Scottish sides were invited to play in the tournament with local English sides. The series, as planned, launched for the 2012–13 season and initially featured events in Dubai, the US, China and the Netherlands. All sevens players, wether in the forwards or otherwise must be fit,agile,relatively strong and demonstrate a high level of fitness in order to compete at an optimum level. The first-ever officially sanctioned tournament for national teams was the 1973 International Seven-A-Side Tournament held at Murrayfield as part of the "Scottish Rugby Union's Celebration of Rugby" centenary celebrations. The tournament was first held in 2009 and has been an annual event since, playing a key role in the development of the sport in the region as well as providing a pathway to qualification for World Rugby's men and women's series as well as the Olympic Games. The Rugby World Cup Sevens is held every four years and is the premier international rugby sevens tournament outside of the Olympic Games.