Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union or more often just rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. Rugby is simply based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is played between two teams of 15 players each, using an oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field called a pitch. The field has H-shaped goalposts at both ends.
The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams.
The Six Nations Championship is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions are Ireland, who won the 2023 tournament.
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.
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.
The Scottish Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Styled as Scottish Rugby, it is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league system, known as the Scottish League Championship, and the Scottish National teams. The SRU is headed by the President and Chairman, with Mark Dodson acting as the Chief Executive Officer. Dee Bradbury became the first female president of a Tier 1 rugby nation upon her appointment on 4 August 2018.
USA Rugby is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugby." USA Rugby is responsible for the promotion and development of the sport in the U.S., and promotion of U.S. international participation.
The New Zealand Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament currently held at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton, New Zealand. For the first eighteen years of its history the event was held in Wellington. The event is the third on the World Rugby Sevens Series circuit and is generally held in late January or early February.
The Australia women's national rugby union team, also known as the Wallaroos, has competed at all Women's Rugby World Cups since 1998, with their best result finishing in third place in 2010.
The National Sevens is a rugby sevens tournament for New Zealand provincial teams. It is held annually and features a men's event and a women's event. The best teams in the country compete over two days for the respective men's and women's titles. The tournament is currently held in Tauranga.
The Ireland national rugby sevens team competes in several international rugby sevens competitions. The team is governed by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU).
The World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, 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.
Rugby sevens at the 2018 Commonwealth Games was held on the Gold Coast, Australia from April 13 to 15. The rugby sevens competition was held at Robina Stadium. This is the sixth time that the men's competition was held, following rugby sevens's debut at the 1998 Games, with women's rugby sevens making its debut. A total of sixteen men's and eight women's teams are scheduled to compete in each respective tournament.
The rugby sevens tournament at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics was held from 13 to 15 October in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The women's rugby sevens tournament at the 2018 Commonwealth Games was the first time that women's teams had participated in this event. The venue for the competition was Robina Stadium.
The 2018 Rugby Europe Sevens Conferences are the lower divisions of Rugby Europe's 2018 sevens season. Conference 1 is held in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the two top-placing teams advancing to the 2019 Trophy, while Conference 2 is held in Tallinn, Estonia, with the top two advancing to Conference 1 for 2019.
The 2018 Rugby Europe Women's Conference is the third division of the 2018 season of the Rugby Europe Women's Sevens. The tournament will be held in Zagreb, Croatia on 8–9 June, with the two highest-placing teams promoted to the 2019 Trophy.
Twelve teams qualified for men's rugby sevens at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Japan automatically qualified as host, with the top four teams of the 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series securing their spots. Afterwards, qualification was determined with each of the six continental confederations determining a representative, and the remaining qualification spot determined through an international sevens tournament.
Twelve teams qualify for women's rugby sevens at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Japan automatically qualifies as host, with the top four teams of the 2018–19 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series securing their spots. Afterwards, qualification is determined with each of the six continental confederations determining a representative, and the remaining qualification spot determined through an international sevens tournament to be determined.
The 2019–20 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series was the eighth edition of the global circuit for women's national rugby sevens teams, organised by World Rugby.
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