2001 Brisbane Sevens

Last updated
2001 Brisbane Sevens
IRB Sevens II
Host nation Flag of Australia (converted).svg Australia
Date16–17 February 2001
Tournament details
Matches played0
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 ballgame-team sport

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.

2000 Fijian coup détat coup in Fiji

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 capital city of Queensland, Australia

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.

Australian Sevens

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.

Related Research Articles

World Rugby Sevens Series international series of tournaments in mens rugby sevens

The World Rugby Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. The series, organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season, was formed to develop an elite-level competition series between rugby nations and develop the sevens game into a viable commercial product for World Rugby. The competition was originally known as the IRB World Sevens Series, but has been known officially as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series since 2014 due to sponsorship from banking group HSBC.

World Rugby rugby union international governing body

World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rugby competitions, such as the World Rugby Sevens Series, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, the World Under 20 Championship, and the Pacific Nations Cup.

Australia national rugby union team national team representing Australia in rugby union

The Australia national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is controlled by Rugby Australia. The team first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first test match against the touring British Isles team.

Waisale Serevi Fijian rugby union footballer and coach

Waisale Tikoisolomoni Serevi is a Fijian former rugby union football player and coach, and is a member of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. Serevi is renowned for his achievements in rugby sevens, while also enjoying a long career in fifteen-a-side rugby at both club and national team levels. Nicknamed "The Wizard" by commentators, he is widely considered to be the greatest rugby sevens player in the history of the game. A biography of Serevi titled Waisale Serevi: King of Sevens by Nick Darvenzi was published in 2018.

Rugby World Cup Sevens international rugby sevens tournament

The Rugby World Cup Sevens is the premier stand-alone international rugby sevens competition outside the Olympic Games. The event is contested every four years, with tournaments for men's and women's national teams co-hosted at the same venues. It is organised by World Rugby, the sport's governing body.

Australia national rugby sevens team

The Australia national rugby sevens team participates in international competitions such as the Sevens World Series and Rugby World Cup Sevens. The current captain of the team is Jesse Parahi, and the head coach is Tim Walsh.

World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup

The Pacific Nations Cup is an international rugby union competition held between three Pacific nations: Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. The 2019 edition of the tournament will also include the national teams of Canada, Japan and United States. First held in 2006, the tournament is intended to strengthen the Tier 2 rugby nations by providing competitive test matches in a tournament format.

Rugby union in Australia

Rugby union is a winter sport in Australia with a history dating back to 1864. Although traditionally most popular in Australia's rugby football strongholds of New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT, it is played throughout the nation.

Dubai Sevens

The Dubai Sevens is an annual rugby sevens and social event held at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai, UAE. Founded in 1970, the event is the longest running sports event in the Middle East.

The 2009 Rugby Sevens World Cup was the fifth edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected Dubai in the United Arab Emirates as the host venue for the tournament ahead of bids from four other countries. The format included nine direct qualifiers and a further fifteen qualifiers from all six regions defined by the IRB. A women's version of the world cup was also held alongside the men's tournament for the first time and featured sixteen teams. The men's cup was won by Wales, with the women's cup going to Australia.

The 1999–2000 IRB Sevens World Series was the first of an annual series of IRB Sevens World Series tournaments for full national sides run by the International Rugby Board. The 1999–2000 Series consisted of ten tournaments spread over several continents.

2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens

The 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens was the sixth edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. The tournament was held at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia. New Zealand won the tournament, defeating England 33–0 in the final. Attendance for the tournament was poor, with matches played in mostly empty stadiums.

The 2011–12 IRB Sevens World Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC Sevens World Series, was the 13th annual series of the IRB Sevens World Series tournaments for full national sides run by the International Rugby Board since 1999–2000.

Japan Sevens

The Japan Sevens, also known as the Tokyo Sevens, is an annual rugby sevens tournament held at the Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. It was a part of the Sevens World Series from 2000 to 2001 and from 2012 to 2015.

The 2000 Brisbane Sevens, officially called the 2000 Brisbane International Sevens, was an international rugby sevens tournament that was part of the World Sevens Series in the inaugural 1999–2000 season. It was the Australian Sevens leg of the series, held on 18–19 February 2000, at Lang Park in Brisbane.

The 2001 Wellington Sevens, also known as the 2001 New Zealand Sevens, was an international rugby sevens tournament that was held in Wellington, New Zealand as the third leg of the 2000–01 World Sevens Series. The tournament took place at the Westpac Stadium on 9–10 February 2001.

The World Rugby Sevens Series hosts have included several different counties. Ten counties currently host a leg of the World Rugby Sevens Series. Several other countries previously hosted tournaments, most recently Scotland and Japan, both of which were terminated following the 2014–15 season.

References

  1. 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.
  2. 1 2 "ARU loses World Sevens Series round". espnscrum.com. 1 January 2001. Archived from the original on 2013-11-03. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
IRB Sevens II
Preceded by
2001 Wellington Sevens
2001 Brisbane Sevens SevensSucceeded by
2001 Hong Kong Sevens
Australian Sevens
Preceded by
2000 Brisbane Sevens
2000 Brisbane SevensSucceeded by
2002 Brisbane Sevens