Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) 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., Melrose Sevens official site, retrieved 25 February 2010
Rugby sevens originated in the 1880s in the Scottish town of Melrose; the Melrose Sevens tournament is still played annually. The popularity of rugby sevens increased further with the development of the Hong Kong Sevens in the 1970s and was later followed by the inclusion of the sport into the Commonwealth Games for the first time in 1998 and the establishment of the annual World Rugby Sevens Series in 1999 and the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series in 2012. In 2016, rugby sevens was contested in the Summer Olympics for the first time. It has also been played in events such as the Games of the Small States of Europe, Pan American Games and the Asian Games, and in 2018 a women's tournament was played for the first time at the Commonwealth Games.
Overview Rugby sevens is sanctioned by World Rugby, and is played under similar laws (with exceptions noted below) and on a field of the same dimensions as the 15 player game. Whereas a regular rugby union match lasts at least 80 minutes, a normal sevens match consists of two halves of seven minutes with a two-minute half-time break. Previously, the final of a competition could be played over two halves of ten minutes each, but beginning in 2017, final-round matches were limited to seven-minute halves (excluding ties) in an effort to reduce injuries. Sevens scores are generally comparable to regular rugby scores, but scoring occurs much more frequently in sevens, since the defenders are more spaced out. The scoring system is the same as regular rugby union, namely five points for a try, three points for a penalty or drop goal and two points for a post-try conversion.
The shorter match length allows rugby sevens tournaments to be completed in a day or a weekend. Many sevens tournaments have a competition for a cup, a plate, a bowl, and a shield, allowing many teams of different standards to avoid leaving empty-handed.
Sevens tournaments are traditionally known for having more of a relaxed atmosphere than fifteen-a-side games, and are often known as "festivals". Sevens tournaments gained their "popularity as an end of season diversion from the dourer and sterner stuff that provides the bulk of a normal season's watching."Jones, The Encyclopedia of Rugby Union Football (1976), p. 122. Fans frequently attend in fancy dress, and entertainment is put on for them.
The Hong Kong Sevens tournament has been especially important in popularising the game in Asia, and rugby sevens has been important as a form of international rugby "evangelism"; hence it is perhaps the most widely played form of the game, with tournaments in places as far apart as Bogota and Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Kenya, Singapore and Scandinavia, as well as the countries in which rugby union is well known.Bath (1997), p29.
Laws Sevens is played on a standard rugby union playing field. The field measures up to long and wide. On each goal line is an H-shaped goal.
Variations to the laws of the game
There are several variations in laws which apply to rugby sevens, primarily to speed up the game and to account for the reduced number of players. The main changes can be summarised as follows:
7 players per team on field (instead of 15). Five substitutes, with five interchanges (instead of 8). Seven-minute halves (instead of 40-minute halves). Maximum of two minutes half-time (instead of ten minutes). Matches drawn after regulation are continued into golden point extra time, in multiple 5-minute periods. All conversion attempts must be drop-kicked (instead of having the option to place-kick). Conversions must be taken within 30 seconds of scoring a try (instead of 90 seconds). Prior to 2016, the limit was 40 seconds. Three player scrums (instead of eight players). Kick-offs: the team which has just scored kicks off, rather than the conceding team. Yellow cards net a 2-minute suspension (instead of 10 minutes) to the offender. Referees decide on advantage quickly (where one play usually ends advantage). In major competitions, there are additional officials present (in-goal touch judges) to judge success of kicks at goals, which means the game is not delayed waiting for touch judges to move into position to judge conversion attempts.
Gameplay Positions and gameplay Teams are composed of seven players – three forwards and four backs."Rugby Sevens: What to Know About This International Sport", A Healthier Michigan, Katrina Danko, 4 August 2016. Scrums are made up of three players from each team. The chart below shows a team's typical formation at scrum time, with three forwards bound into the scrum, a scrum-half waiting to retrieve the ball once it exits the scrum, and three backs positioned to receive a pass. The numbers shown here are for illustrative purposes only. Unlike rugby fifteens, where a player's number corresponds to their position, numbering in rugby sevens is more flexible. In a squad of twelve players, the players will be numbered one through twelve. The starting players can have any of the twelve numbers, not necessarily one through seven. No set numbers differentiate positions; for example, numbers one through three are not reserved for forwards, but can be worn by any squad player.
Rugby sevens positions 1 - Prop 2 - Hooker 3 - Prop
4 - Scrum-half 5 - Fly-half 6 - Centre 7 - Wing
In open play, a typical defensive formation involves a line of six defenders, with one sweeper behind the line."10 Principles of Playing Good 7’s", Rugby Thoughts, Billy Millard, Accessed 17 October 2016. With the attacking team using all seven players against the defending team's six in the line, the attacking team often attempts to move the ball to create an overload."Set up your rugby sevens defence", Rugby Coach Weekly, Dan Cottrell. The defensive line can be put under pressure if the defending team makes a tackle and commits players to the ruck; with fewer players in the defending line, it leaves more space for the attacking team to exploit.
Pace of the game Rugby sevens tends to be played at a faster pace than rugby fifteens. Because of the faster nature of the game, sevens players are often backs or loose forwards in fifteens rugby. The differences are most notable on game restarts. Because scrums in sevens involve three players forming one row instead of eight players forming three rows, scrums tend to assemble more quickly, require fewer restarts, and the ball exits the scrum more quickly."Can't tell a scrum from a sin bin?”, Today.com, Lexi Dwyer, 9 August 2016."Comparing Rugby Sevens with 15-Man Rugby", Bleacher Report, Daniel Rey, 15 May 2015. Penalties in sevens are generally taken with a quick tap, instead of a kick for touch and a line out, resulting in the ball being put back in play more quickly."Rugby penalties in Sevens", Rugby Coach Weekly, Dan Cottrell, Accessed 17 October 2018. When a player is tackled and a ruck is formed, the ball tends to exit the ruck more quickly, as the attacking team generally has only three players involved in the ruck – the tackled player, one support player, and one scrum-half."Situational coupling at the ruck", J.F. Barkell, 2017.
History
Origins At Loretto School in Musselburgh, Scotland, the then headmaster Hely Hutchinson Almond got the schoolboys to play short-sided matches in the 1860s and 1870s. This was to improve the players' passing. A full rugby union match, at the time, was twenty-a-side and individualism was the style. Almond stated that he: urged on his boys in the sixties that if only they would pass constantly and systematically to each other, they would baffle any side unaccustomed to such tactics. Almond, a pioneer in collectivism in rugby union, struggled to get his schoolboys to get used to the system. The schoolboys stated this was 'funking'; but by 1872 he was organising eleven-a-side matches with Edinburgh Academicals. In 2007, Almond was nominated for the IRB Hall of Fame but was not inducted.
Collectivism did eventually take hold with new clubs, and Scotland exported it through Sevens around the world, and sides like New Zealand and South Africa quickly realised the benefits of collectivism. The bigger clubs in Scotland were reluctant to change their ways. They were winning, and could attract the best individualists from other clubs to maintain their position. In 1895 the Scottish Referee newspaper was still criticising West of Scotland for not using the collective method.
In England, the push for smaller sides eventually resulted in the formation of rugby league; and there was experimentation with numbers in the north of England prior to the split. There was a six-a-side tournament in Huddersfield in September 1879, played under regular rules but with 10 minute halves. Other tournaments were played over the next few years across the North before being replaced by a nine-a-side game. Matches attracted large crowds and raised thousands to support the clubs or local hospital charities. In August 1890, Yorkshire suspended 8 teams and in September Lancashire banned games with less than 15-a-side over allegations of professionalism; short sided games effectively ended in England.
Scotland
Rugby sevens was initially conceived in 1883 by Ned Haig and David Sanderson, who were butchers from Melrose, Scotland as a fund-raising event for their local club, Melrose RFC. The first-ever sevens match was played at The Greenyards, the Melrose ground, where it was well received. Two years later, Tynedale was the first non-Scottish club to win one of the Borders Sevens titles at Gala in 1885.Bath, Scotland Rugby Miscellany, p82
Rugby union sevens' popularity in the Borders spread north throughout Scotland:- Aberdeen hosting Sevens in 1889; Edinburgh hosting Sevens in 1896; Glasgow hosting Sevens in 1898; Dundee hosting Sevens in 1901. The popularity of Sevens exploded in the 1920s and 1930s.Starmer-Smith, p60 From the 19th century to today, over 150 Sevens tournaments in Scotland are known; and though some tournaments have folded; new tournaments continue to be born.
Sevens remain popular in Scotland; and the Melrose Sevens annually attracts around 12,000 spectators to the small Borders town. The Melrose Sevens centenary tournament in 1983 attracted 17,500 fans.
International spread England A rugby sevens tournament was played by St. Helens Cricket Club on 29 May 1886; and the final took place a week later. A rugby sevens tournament was organised by Warrington F.C. (a rugby club) on their athletics day on 14 August 1886 but it was not repeated. A rugby sevens match was played in Chorley, Lancashire as part of the Chorley Rugby and Athletic club's sports day on 22 July 1888; another match looks to have taken place the following year on 24 August 1889. The Rainford Athletics Club hosted a Sports Day on 7 August 1888 with a 3 team rugby sevens tournament, but this was a one-off and not repeated. Sevens then ended in England and it would be a long wait for any future English Sevens tournaments to arrive, with the exception of a Whitsuntide event, which included sevens, at Hexham in 1894 which seemed to go ahead without official backing. The Hexham Whitsuntide Sports committee tried to invite Hawick RFC as their star guests, but without backing this did not come off.