Rugby sevens 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.
Sport in the United Kingdom plays an important role in British culture and the United Kingdom has played a significant role in the organisation and spread of sporting culture globally. In the infancy of many organised sports, the Home Nations were heavily involved in setting out the formal rules of many sports and formed among the earliest separate governing bodies, national teams and domestic league competitions. After 1922, some sports formed separate bodies for Northern Ireland, though many continued to be organised on an all-Ireland basis. For this reason, in many though not all sports, most domestic and international sport is carried on a Home Nations basis, and England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland are recognised as national entities.
Sport in Wales plays a prominent role in Welsh culture. Like the other countries of the United Kingdom, Wales enjoys independent representation in major world sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup and in the Rugby World Cup, but competes as part of Great Britain in some other competitions, including the Olympics.
The Ireland national rugby sevens team competes in several international rugby sevens competitions. The team is governed by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU).
Spain's national rugby sevens team is one of 15 core teams participating in all ten tournaments of the World Rugby Sevens Series, having qualified by winning the 2017 Hong Kong Sevens qualifier tournament. Spain participated as a core team in the 2012–13 IRB Sevens World Series, but was relegated the following season.
The Rugby Europe Sevens are a series of rugby sevens tournaments held by Rugby Europe. It was formerly known as the FIRA-AER Sevens until 2013, and the Sevens Grand Prix Series until 2021. Only one annual tournament existed prior to 2011, when Rugby Europe created a series of tournaments, following the model of the World Rugby Sevens Series. The main division is known as the Rugby Europe Championship Series, formerly known the Grand Prix, followed by the Trophy Series, Conference 1, and Conference 2. The competitions use a promotion/relegation system.
The Ireland women's national rugby sevens team participates in international competitions such as the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, the Rugby Europe Women's Sevens and Rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics. Unlike the Ireland women's national rugby union team, the sevens team is a professional team with players contracted to the Irish Rugby Football Union.
The World Rugby SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, is a series of international rugby sevens tournaments for women's national teams run by World Rugby. The inaugural series was held in 2012–13 as the successor to the IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup held the previous season. The competition has been sponsored by banking group HSBC since 2015.
The 2014–15 Sevens World Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC Sevens World Series, was the 16th annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national rugby sevens teams. The Sevens World Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999–2000. This series also, for the first time, doubled as a qualifier for the 2016 Summer Olympics, with the top four national teams qualifying automatically.
The Belgium women's national rugby sevens team are a national sporting side of Belgium, representing them at Rugby sevens.
The Great Britain men's national rugby sevens team is the men's international rugby 7s team that is the representative team of Great Britain. The team competes in the annual World Rugby Sevens Series as well as the Olympic Games and European Games. Historically, Great Britain was represented in rugby 7s by England, Scotland and Wales but the inclusion of Rugby 7s at the Olympic and European Games, together with funding issues has resulted in the formation of a permanent combined team from 2023. The separate England, Scotland and Wales teams play in the Rugby World Cup Sevens and the Commonwealth Games.
The Great Britain national rugby sevens team is the women's Olympic representative team of Great Britain at the rugby sevens tournament at the Summer Olympic Games. The team played their first competitive match at the 2016 Summer Olympics after England finished in an Olympic qualifying place at the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series.
The 2017 Hong Kong Sevens was the 42nd edition of the Hong Kong Sevens tournament, and the seventh tournament of the 2016–17 World Rugby Sevens Series. The tournament was played on 7–9 April 2017 at Hong Kong Stadium in Hong Kong.
The 2017 Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix served as a European qualifier not only for the 2018 Hong Kong Sevens qualifier tournament, but for two bids among the teams not already qualified for the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens.
The 2016 Rugby Europe Women's Sevens Grand Prix Series was the top level of international women's rugby sevens competitions organised by Rugby Europe during 2016. The series featured two tournaments, one hosted in Kazan and one hosted in Malemort. In preparation for 2016 Summer Olympics, England and Wales were replaced by two Great Britain representative teams, the Lions and the Royals. France won the Kazan tournament while Russia won the Malemort tournament. Russia won the overall championship. Finland and Ukraine were relegated to the 2017 Trophy series.
The 2018 Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series serves as a qualifying tournament for the 2019 Hong Kong Sevens qualifier. The three top placing 2018-2019 non-core World Series teams — Ireland, Germany, and Russia — advance to the 2019 Hong Kong Sevens qualification tournament. Ireland won the series, winning three out of the four tournaments.
The 2019 Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series was the eighteenth edition of the continental championship for rugby sevens in Europe. The series took place over two legs, the first at Moscow in Russia and the second at Łódź in Poland.
The 2019 Rugby Europe Women's Sevens Grand Prix Series was the 2019 edition of Rugby Europe's annual rugby sevens season. The top placing non-core teams advanced to the 2020 Hong Kong Women's Sevens qualification tournament, and the two teams with the fewest points were relegated to the 2020 Trophy tournament. The Marcoussis leg of the tournament also served as a qualifier to the European qualifiers for the 2020 Summer Olympics, where seven teams aside from Wales and Scotland advanced.
The 2022–23 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series was the tenth edition of the global circuit for women's national rugby sevens teams, organised by World Rugby. New Zealand won the series at the last event in Toulouse, taking out six of the seven events on the tour to claim their seventh World Series title with Australia and the United States placing second and third, respectively. The series doubled as a qualifier for the 2024 Olympic Sevens, so those three teams along with host country France, who finished fourth in the series, and Ireland, who finished fifth, all gained direct qualifying berths for the women's tournament to be held in Paris in 2024.
The 2022–23 World Rugby Sevens Series was the 24th annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for men's national teams. The Sevens Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999. This series also doubled as a qualifier for the 2024 Olympic Games, with the top four countries, excluding the hosts France, qualifying automatically.
Russia 
England 
Poland 
Great Britain Royals
