The Snelling Sevens (also known as the Snelling Seven-a-Side Trophy and originally known as the Welsh Seven-a-Side Tournament) was an annual Welsh Rugby Union sevens competition that ran from 1954 until 1995.
The tournament was inaugurated in 1954 and the trophy presented by the Chairman of Newport Athletic Club, Reg Snelling, after whom the competition is named. The competition took place over a single day, and was originally a straightforward knockout tournament between 16 teams, with the initial draw taking place prior to the match day. The teams invited were the premier South Wales teams, but occasionally if a team was on tour at the time clubs were invited from other areas, including English teams such as Leicester and Bath. Ebbw Vale won the tournament in 1958. The squad included G Powell, M Williams, F Matthews, R Morgan, D Ackerman, D Barrett, R Evans, K Cameron, J Pugh. 1967 saw the introduction of the Bill Everson Award for the Man of the Tournament Trophy. In 1979, the competition changed format from a purely knockout tournament to a pool system with four groups of four teams followed by knockout rounds.
Despite the competition's popularity from the 1950s to the 1970s, crowds diminished from 50,000 at its peak to around 5,000 by the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1995, the competition was renamed as the "Worthington Sevens", but it was decided that, due to the congested timetables of the clubs involved, the tournament should cease to be held. The trophy was awarded permanently to Newport as the most successful club in the competition's history.
The English Football League Trophy is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in levels three and four of the English football pyramid, with the addition of 16 under-21 teams from Premier League and EFL Championship clubs since the 2016–17 season.
The SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the competition was formed to promote an elite-level of international rugby sevens and develop the game into a viable commercial product. The competition has been sponsored by banking group HSBC since 2014.
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 (following the Canada Sevens. 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. 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.
Newport Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union club based in the city of Newport, South Wales. They presently play in the Welsh Premier Division. Until 2021 Newport RFC were based at Rodney Parade situated on the east bank of the River Usk.
The CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship, is the top men's football tournament contested among national teams from South America. It is the oldest still-running continental football competition, as well as the third most watched in the world. The competition determines the champions of South America. Since the 1990s, teams from North America and Asia have also been invited to compete.
The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América, is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournament is named after the Libertadores, the leaders of the Latin American wars of independence, so a literal translation of its former name into English is "America's Liberators Cup".
The FAW Welsh Cup, currently known as the JD Welsh Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out football competition contested annually by teams in the Welsh football league system. It is considered the most prestigious of the cup competitions in domestic Welsh association football.
The Anglo-Welsh Cup, was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English clubs.
The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The competition was instigated in 1969 to cater to those non-league clubs that paid their players and were therefore not eligible to enter the FA Amateur Cup.
The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in South Africa, and the BKT United Rugby Championship in the competition's other territories, the split branding mirroring the format previously adopted in Super Rugby. The Championship represents the highest level of domestic club or franchise rugby in each of its constituent countries. The Championship is one of the three major professional leagues in Europe, the most successful teams from which go forward to compete in the highest-level continental club competitions, the European Rugby Champions Cup and Challenge Cup. Since 2022–23, despite the name, South African teams have been eligible to qualify for European competitions, and one South African place in the Champions Cup from the Championship is guaranteed.
Rugby union in Wales is considered a large part of Welsh national culture. Rugby union is thought to have reached Wales in the 1850s, with the national body, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) being formed in 1881. Wales are considered to be one of the most successful national sides in Rugby Union, having won the most Six Nations Championships, as well as having reached 3 World Cup semi finals in 1987, 2011 and 2019, having finished 3rd in the inaugural competition and having finished 4th in 2011 in a repeat of the first third place play-off. The Welsh team of the 1970s is considered to be arguably the greatest national team of all time, prompting many experts in the game to suggest that had the Rugby World Cup existed during this period, Wales would be amongst the list of World Cup winners. As of November 2021, they are ranked 8th in the world.
Bridgend Ravens are a semi-professional rugby union club based in Bridgend, South Wales.
The Glamorgan County Silver Ball Trophy is a Welsh rugby union competition open to all non-premier Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) clubs playing in the Glamorgan area.
The Rugby Football League Challenge Cup, commonly know just as the Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, it is the worlds oldest cup competition in either code of rugby. A concurrent Women's Challenge Cup and Wheelchair Challenge Cup have been held since 2012 and 2016 respectively.
The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception in 1996 to 2014, it was known as the European Challenge Cup and governed by European Rugby Cup (ERC). Following disagreements in the structure of the tournament's format and division of revenue, the English and French leagues withdrew to form the EPCR, which organized the Challenge Cup and the Champions Cup since the 2014–15 season.
The 2014 Premiership Rugby Sevens Series was the fifth Rugby Union 7-a-side competition for the twelve 2014–15 Aviva Premiership Clubs, and the first to include the four Welsh Regions that compete in the Pro12.
The 2016–17 EFL Trophy, known as the Checkatrade Trophy for sponsorship reasons, was the 35th season in the history of the competition and the first since being rebranded from Football League Trophy. It was played as a knock-out tournament for English football clubs in League One and League Two of the English football system and for the first time was expanded to include 16 Premier League and Championship "B Teams" with Category One status as part of a trial.
The 2019–20 EFL Trophy, known as the Leasing.com Trophy for sponsorship reasons, was the 38th season in the history of the competition, a knock-out tournament for English football clubs in League One and League Two of the English football system, and also including 16 Premier League and Championship "Academy teams" with Category One status. Due to their financial crisis, Bury were expelled from the EFL and automatically eliminated from the competition as well.