World Rugby is the 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 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.
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 (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.
The New Zealand national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, Summer Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. They have won a record 14 World Rugby Sevens Series titles.
Ben Gollings is an English former rugby union player who most recently worked as a rugby coach for Fiji sevens team. Gollings is best known for his time with the England national rugby sevens team. He is the career leader in points scored on the World Rugby Sevens Series with 2,652 points.
The Australia national rugby sevens team participates in international competitions such as the World Rugby Sevens Series and Rugby World Cup Sevens. The current captain of the team is Nick Malouf, and the head coach is John Manenti.
The South African national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, the Summer Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. Overall, the team has won the World Rugby Sevens Series 4 times, as well as having won 40 tournaments in the series.
The 2005–06 World Sevens Series was the seventh edition of the global circuit for men's national rugby sevens teams, run by the International Rugby Board since 1999-2000. The series was won by Fiji in the last event of the competition, ending New Zealand's 6-year run as series champions. Fiji needed to finish in fifth place or higher at the London Sevens to ensure that they would win the series ahead of England, but won the tournament handily with 54–14 victory over Samoa in the final.
Rugby union in Fiji is a popular team sport and is considered to be the national sport of the country. The sport was introduced to Fiji in the 1880s. Fiji is defined as a tier two rugby nation by World Rugby. The national team has competed at the Rugby World Cup and made it as far as the quarter-finals. Their sevens team is also noted for their success, winning multiple Olympic gold medals, World Rugby Sevens Series and Rugby World Cup Sevens.
The Argentina national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, in the Rugby World Cup Sevens, and, beginning in 2016, in the Summer Olympics.
The Samoa national rugby sevens team, referred to as Samoa Sevens or Manu Samoa 7s, competes in the annual World Rugby Sevens Series. Representing the polynesian country of Samoa, with a population of about 202,000, the team competes against some of the wealthiest countries in the world. The Samoa sevens team is overseen by the Samoa Rugby Football Union, which oversees all of rugby union in Samoa.
Ben Ryan is an English sports coach who is best known for coaching the Fiji sevens team to a gold medal in sevens rugby at the 2016 Rio Olympics. He is currently Performance Director at association football club Brentford.
Rugby union is the most popular sport in Fiji ; however, rugby league, netball, and association football are also widely played. Various forms of traditional boat racing and wrestling are also popular.
Iliesa Samusamuvodre Tanivula is a former New Zealand sevens player and the current coach of the Fiji sevens team. Tanivula could play most positions in the backline. He mainly played at centre, wing or fullback.
Rugby sevens was played at the Olympics for the first time at the 2016 Summer Olympics, with both men's and women's contests. It was added to the Olympics following the decision of the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen in October 2009. The champions for the inaugural rugby sevens tournament in 2016 were Fiji for the men and Australia for the women. Prior to 2016, 15-a-side matches were played in 1900, 1908, 1920, and 1924.
The Australia women's national rugby sevens team, are the Australia national rugby sevens team of women. They were champions of the inaugural Women's Sevens World Cup in 2009. The team plays in the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series as one of the "core teams" on the world tour, of which they have been crowned Champions three times. The team also played in the preceding competition to the current world series, the IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup. In 2016, they won the inaugural gold medal at the Rio Summer Olympics.
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 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.
Jope Tuikabe is a Fijian former rugby union and rugby sevens player. He played as a flanker.
