France Sevens

Not to be confused with France national rugby sevens team.

France Sevens

Most recent season or competition: 2023 France Sevens
Sport	Rugby sevens
First season	1995
No. of teams	16
Most recent champion(s)	New Zealand
Most titles	South Africa   (3 titles)  New Zealand   (3 titles)

Paris Sevens venue Stade Jean-Bouin.

The France Sevens, also called the Paris Sevens, is an annual international rugby sevens tournament that is one of ten competitions on the annual World Rugby Sevens Series. The France Sevens is generally held in May or June on the weekend following the London Sevens and is the last competition in the Sevens Series. France has also hosted tournaments within the European Sevens Grand Prix Series, often at Lyon.

History

France hosted its first International Sevens tournament at Melun, in the outskirts of Paris, in May 1995.

The 16 team tournament, culminated in a repeat of the pool game between England and France.

Winners of the previous day’s clash, a very strong England side captained by Rob Kitchen, took the lead with two tries by player of the tournament Gerry Ainscough, both of which he converted.

Captained by Alain Penaud and including a number of other players with full caps, France recovered and snatched a 21 - 14 victory in the dying minutes of a very high quality game.

From 1996 to 1999 the tournament was known as the Air France Sevens, and in the year 2000 it was part of the inaugural IRB Sevens World Series.

The IRB hosted the tournament at Bordeaux in 2004, before returning to Paris for 2005 and 2006. The event was effectively replaced in the World Sevens Series by the Scotland Sevens at Edinburgh for the 2006-07 season.

Between 2011 and 2015, Lyon hosted a leg of the European circuit, the Sevens Grand Prix Series.

The Sevens World Series returned to France for the 2015-16 season, with the revival of the Paris Sevens tournament in 2016.

International sevens

Invitational tournament

Year	Venue	Cup final			Placings			Refs
		Winner	Score	Runner-up	Plate	Bowl	Shield
1996	Sébastien Charléty Paris	Fiji	38–19	France	Romania	Russia	n/a	[1] [2]
1997	Sébastien Charléty Paris	Fiji	13–7	New Zealand	French Barbarians	Germany	n/a	[3] [4] [5] [2]
1998	Sébastien Charléty Paris	Australia	33–26	New Zealand	South American Barbarians	Japan	n/a	[2] [6]
1999	Sébastien Charléty Paris	New Zealand	36–26	France	French Barbarians	Australia	n/a	[7]

World Rugby Sevens Series

Year	Venue	Cup final			Placings			Refs
		Winner	Score	Runner-up	Plate	Bowl	Shield
2000	Sébastien Charléty Paris	New Zealand	69–10	South Africa	Fiji	Samoa	n/a	[8]
	No tournament in the World Series for men's teams played in France from 2001 to 2003
2004	Chaban-Delmas Bordeaux	New Zealand	28–19	England	Argentina	France	Spain	[9]
2005	Stade Jean-Bouin Paris	France	28–19	Fiji	South Africa	Argentina	Canada	[10]
2006	Sébastien Charléty Paris	South Africa	33–12	Samoa	Fiji	Kenya	Scotland	[11]
	No tournament in the World Series for men's teams played in France from 2007 to 2015
2016	Stade Jean-Bouin Paris	Samoa	29–26	Fiji	South Africa	Scotland	Portugal	[12]
		Winner	Score	Runner-up	Third	Fourth	Fifth
2017	Stade Jean-Bouin Paris	South Africa	15–5	Scotland	New Zealand	England	United States	[13]
2018	Stade Jean-Bouin Paris	South Africa	24–14	England	New Zealand	Canada	Fiji	[14]
2019	Stade Jean-Bouin Paris	Fiji	35–24	New Zealand	South Africa	United States	France	[15]
World Series tournaments planned for Paris were cancelled in 2020  [16] and 2021, [17] due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2022	Stade Ernest-Wallon Toulouse	Fiji	29–17	Ireland	France	Samoa	Argentina	[18]
2023	Stade Ernest-Wallon, Toulouse	New Zealand	24–19	Argentina	France	Canada	Australia

European Grand Prix

In most years since 2011, France has hosted a leg of the Sevens Grand Prix Series, a multi-leg competition sponsored by Rugby Europe every summer involving teams from Europe.

Year	Venue	Cup final			Placings			Refs
	Lyon Sevens	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Third	Fourth	Fifth
2011	Matmut Stadium Lyon	England	28–14	Spain	France	Portugal	Russia	[19]
2012	Matmut Stadium Lyon	England	26–14	Portugal	Spain	Wales	Russia	[20]
2013	Matmut Stadium Lyon	England	33–5	Russia	France	Wales	Portugal	[21]
2014	Matmut Stadium Lyon	France	40–10	Belgium	Spain	Russia	n/a	[22]
2015	Matmut Stadium Lyon	France	20–7	Spain	Belgium	Germany	England	[23]
2016	No Grand Prix Series event hosted in France for 2016
2017	Gabriel Montpied Clermont	Ireland	17–14	Russia	Spain	Germany	Wales	[24]
2018	Marcoussis	Ireland	49–7	Germany	England	Russia	Portugal	[25]

See also

• France Women's Sevens

References

1. "In brief: Fiji wins Paris Sevens". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax. 13 October 1996. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
2. "Results in the 90s". Air France Rugby Sevens. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
3. "Les Fidjiens sortent vainqueurs de la mêlée". Concorde (in French) (5): 3. 10 June 1997. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018.
4. "Deuxième édition de l'Air France Rugby Sevens". Concorde (in French) (5): 1. 10 June 1997. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018.
5. "Sports Monday Paris: Results on the first day of the Paris Sevens event". The Age. Melbourne. p. 22, col. 1. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
6. "Campese sets up win over NZ". The Age. Melbourne: Fairfax. 18 May 1998. Archived from the original on 20 April 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
7. "Programme des Finales". Air France Rugby Sevens (in French). Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
8. IRB Sevens I – Paris, Rugby7.com.
9. IRB Sevens V – Bordeaux, Rugby7.com.
10. IRB Sevens VI – Paris, Rugby7.com.
11. IRB Sevens VII – Paris, Rugby7.com.
12. Sevens World Series - Leg 9 (Paris) 2015/16 Rugby Archive
13. Sevens World Series - Leg 9 (Paris) 2016/17 Rugby Archive
14. IRB Sevens XIX – Paris, Rugby7.com.
15. IRB Sevens XX – Paris, Rugby7.com.
16. "New Zealand awarded titles as HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2020 concluded". World Rugby. 30 June 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
17. "HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2021 schedule update". World Rugby. 4 August 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
18. IRB Sevens XXXIII – Toulouse, Rugby7.com.
19. 2011 Euro Sevens X – Lyon, France, Rugby7.com.
20. 2012 Euro Grand Prix – Lyon, France, Rugby7.com.
21. 2013 Euro Grand Prix – Lyon, France, Rugby7.com.
22. 2014 Euro Grand Prix – Lyon, France, Rugby7.com.
23. 2015 Euro Grand Prix – Lyon, France, Rugby7.com.
24. 2017 Euro Grand Prix – Clermont, France, Rugby7.com.
25. 2018 Euro Grand Prix – Marcoussis, France, Rugby7.com.