| 2001 Brisbane Sevens | |
|---|---|
| IRB Sevens II | |
| Host nation |  |
| Date | 16–17 February 2001 |
| Tournament details | |
| Matches played | 0 |
← 2000 2002 → | |
The 2001 Brisbane Sevens, officially the 2001 Brisbane International Sevens, was a cancelled international rugby sevens tournament, originally scheduled to be part of the second season of the World Sevens Series in 2000-01. The International Rugby Board (IRB) withdrew the World Series hosting rights in response to the Australian government's sporting sanctions against Fiji. [1]
Rugby 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. Rugby sevens is administered by World Rugby, the body responsible for rugby union worldwide. The game is popular at all levels, with amateur and club tournaments generally held in the summer months. Sevens is one of the most well distributed forms of rugby, and is popular in parts of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, and especially in the South Pacific.
The 2000-01 IRB Sevens World Series was the second edition of the IRB Sevens World Series. The Series consisted of nine tournaments.
The Australian federal government had refused to provide visas to the Fijian 7s squad following the Fiji military coup which had taken place in May 2000. [2]
The Fiji national rugby sevens team is one of the most successful rugby sevens teams in the world. Fiji has won the Hong Kong Sevens a record eighteen times since the tournament's inception in 1976. Fiji has also won the Rugby World Cup Sevens twice — in 1997 and 2005. Fiji also won the gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil, the country's first Olympic medal in any event.
The Fiji coup of 2000 was a complicated affair involving a civilian coup d'état by hardline i-Taukei nationalists against the elected government of a Fijian of Indian Descent Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, on 19 May 2000, the attempt by President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara to assert executive authority on 27 May, and his own resignation, possibly forced, on 29 May. An interim government headed by Commodore Frank Bainimarama was set up, and handed power over to an interim administration headed by Ratu Josefa Iloilo, as President, on 13 July.
The statement from the IRB in response said:
While it is appreciated that the decision to ban the Fijians has been taken by the Australian government and not the ARU (Australian Rugby Union), the IRB, after careful consideration, has decided that the Host Union Agreement cannot in this instance be honoured and that, as a consequence, it will not be possible for the Series to be held in Brisbane.
The Board has recognised that if the ARU wishes to proceed with the Tournament without Fiji, then it may do so, but it will not be a World Series event, nor will it be accorded status as an IRB event. [2]
The event had been planned to be held in Brisbane on the weekend of 16–17 February 2001, but was cancelled. It would have been the 2nd edition of the Australian Sevens tournament but that had to wait for the 2002 Brisbane Sevens in the 2001-02 season.
Brisbane is the capital of and the most populated city in the Australian state of Queensland, and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of approximately 2.5 million, and the South East Queensland metropolitan region, centred on Brisbane, encompasses a population of more than 3.6 million.
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. The tournament was held in Brisbane, in Adelaide, and on the Gold Coast in previous seasons.
The 2002 Brisbane Sevens, officially called the 2002 Brisbane International Sevens, was an international rugby sevens tournament that was part of the World Sevens Series in the 2001–02 season. It was the Australian Sevens leg of the series, held at Ballymore Stadium in Brisbane over the weekend of the 2 and 3 March 2002.
