The Hong Kong Sevens is a rugby sevens tournament held annually in Hong Kong on a weekend in late March or early April. Considered the premier tournament on the World Rugby Sevens Series competition, the Hong Kong Sevens is currently the seventh tournament on the World Series calendar. The tournament spans three days, beginning on a Friday and concluding on Sunday. The tournament is organised each year by the Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 respectively. The latest Hong Kong Rugby Sevens was held on Friday 31 March, Saturday 1, Sunday 2 April 2023.
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.
Tag rugby, or flag rugby, is a non-contact team game in which each player wears a belt that has two velcro tags attached to it, or shorts with velcro patches. The mode of play is based on rugby league with many similarities to touch football, although tag rugby is often deemed a closer simulation of full contact rugby league than touch. Attacking players attempt to dodge, evade and pass a rugby ball while defenders attempt to prevent them scoring by "tagging" – pulling a velcro attached tag from the ball carrier, rather than a full contact tackle. Tag rugby is used in development and training by both rugby league and rugby union communities.
Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWCS) is the quadrennial world championship of rugby sevens, a variant of rugby union. Organised by World Rugby, it currently consists of men's and women's tournaments, and is the highest level of competition in the sport outside of the Summer Olympics.
Sir Gordon Frederick Tietjens is head coach of the Samoa rugby sevens team, and a celebrated former coach of the New Zealand men's national team in rugby sevens, the All Blacks Sevens. When the International Rugby Board inducted him into the IRB Hall of Fame in May 2012, it said that "Tietjens' roll of honour is without peer in Sevens, and perhaps in the Game of Rugby as a whole." According to Spiro Zavos, Tietjens is "The greatest of all the Sevens coaches".
The USA Women's National Team XVs represents the United States in women's international rugby union. The team was officially formed in 1987 and is nicknamed the Eagles.
Rugby union in China is a growing sport; however, it is still not overly popular. China became affiliated to the International Rugby Board in 1997 and as of 1 July 2019, its women's XV side was ranked 24th and its men's XV side 80th in the world. Neither the women's team nor the men's team has yet qualified for a Women's Rugby World Cup or a men's Rugby World Cup. However, China has hopes of one day hosting the men's event, and World Rugby has indicated it supports taking the event there.
The Papua New Guinea national rugby sevens team competes in the Pacific Games, Commonwealth Games, Challenger Series and the Oceania Sevens. They finished third in 2009 and fourth in 2010, 2015, 2016 and 2023 in the Oceania Sevens. They missed out on a maiden Olympic spot after being defeated by Samoa 24-0 in the 2023 Oceania 7s Olympic Playoff.
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.
Zachary "Zack" Test is a retired American rugby union player who played for the United States national rugby sevens team. With 143 career tries in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Test led all U.S. players in tries scored until Perry Baker broke his record in early 2018. He is the current head coach of the San Diego Legion in Major League Rugby (MLR).
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.
Anna Mary Richards is a former New Zealand rugby union player. She represented New Zealand at four World Cups — 1998, 2002, 2006, and 2010.
Kelly Griffin is an American rugby sevens player and Olympian. As a member of the United States women's national rugby sevens team, she won a bronze medal at the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens, and a silver medal at the 2015 Pan American Games. She was also captain of the United States Women's Rugby Sevens team for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Jillion Paige Potter is an American rugby union player. She was the captain of the 2016 USA Olympic women's rugby sevens team.
Phaidra Knight is an American former rugby union footballer who was a member of the United States national team from 1999 to 2017. She participated in the 2002, 2006, and 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup, and won All-World Team honors in the first two World Cups.
Deven Johanna Owsiany is an American rugby union player. She made her debut for the United States in 2014. She was named in the Eagles 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup squad. She made her sevens debut for the United States at the 2012 USA Sevens in Las Vegas.
Kimber Rozier is an American rugby union player. She made her debut for the United States in 2012 and for the Eagles sevens at the 2011 Dubai Women's Sevens. She was named in the Eagles 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup squad. She previously competed at the 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup in France.
Ellie Karvoski is an American former national field hockey and rugby union fifteens and sevens player. She participated in the 2002 and 2006 Rugby World Cup's, and the 2009 Rugby Sevens World Cup. Karvoski is considered one of the top ten North American women rugby players.
Helen Nelson is a Scottish rugby union player. She played for Scotland and was captain for the team at the 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship in their winning match against Wales. She was the captain of the Scotland Rugby Union Sevens Captain from 2018 to 2019 and has also been a member of the Scottish Alpine Ski Team (2009-2012).
Makenzie Weale is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who currently plays for the North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL Women's Premiership.
