Rugby-7s for Dummies: Useful Information for Beginners

Rugby-7s (sevens) is a contact and team kind of sport that appeared in Scotland in the late 19th century. Nowadays, it is one of those rugby-football variations. A rugby-7s match is a competition of two teams with seven players in each, it lasts for two 7-minute periods with an interval between them. The interval cannot last more than two minutes. Similar to traditional rugby-15, rugby-7s players aim at scoring points by either delivering the ball to the opponents’ end zone hitting the H-shaped goals above its crossbar.

General Peculiarities

These official matches take place on the field of standard dimensions and are governed by the same rule that found in rugby-15. However, some peculiarities that make it possible to distinguish between the two variations exist, and they will be described further.

Players

The first characteristic feature, as it can be clear, refers to the number of players. Thus, no more than 7 representatives of the same team can be on the field, while the number of substitutes is limited to 5 players.

Time

As has been stated, a regular match consists of two 7-minute halves with a two-minute interval between them. However, when it comes to final events, that can include two 10-minute periods. Extra time can be added to any half; its amount is determined by the referee. If it is an elimination tournament and two teams fail to determine a winner within the regulation time, two 5-minute extra halves without an interval between them are announced.

Officials

Apart from the referee and his two assistants, every official match should be also served by two end zone judges. As is clear, each of these officials should stay within the end zone of a team. Their task is to control and monitor their zone of responsibility and timely notify the referee of fouls, scored points, and cases when the ball has left the field.

Scoring System

When a player is given an opportunity to hit the goal, he or she is allowed to kick the ball after bouncing. It may take up to 30 seconds for the player to perform this kick. At the same time, all the representatives of the opposing team should be behind the 10-meter line.

Foul Play

If it happens that a player is temporarily sent off, he or she must leave the field for two minutes.

Kick-Offs

Once a team has managed to earn some points, the following kick-off is performed by a player of the same team.

Scrum

In rugby-7s, three representatives of the same team participate in a scrum.

Main Competitions

Even though it can seem that rugby, in general, and rugby-7s, in particular, are not popular in the whole world, it is not true. This thought can be proved by the fact that rugby-7s events take place at numerous international competitions, including the Olympic Games. In addition to that, the World Championships can gather the best national teams from the whole world.

Furthermore, the World Series is a set of annual tournaments that was created in 1999. It consists of a few stages (their number can vary from 7 to 11) that are held from November-December to May-June. The Hong Kong tournament is the most ancient and prestigious among them. It used to be a separate international event before joining the World Series.

History

In 1883, two butchers offered the leaders of Melrose rugby club to decrease the number of players and time of matches to make organizing and holding rugby matches cheaper. The same year witnessed the first rugby-7s match ever between two Scottish teams.

Up to the 1920s, rugby-7s had been extremely popular mainly in particular areas of Scotland. That state of affairs, however, changed in 1921 when there took place the first rugby-7s event outside the British Isles. This event was held in Argentina by a local club. The first rugby-7s regular tournament was created in England in 1926 and it was called Middlesex Sevens. It was famous because all the money obtained from tickets and attributes was sent for charity needs.

The first official international tournament among national rugby-7s teams took place in Edinburg in 1973. It was confined to the 100th anniversary of the Scottish Rugby Union. That tournament was attended by national teams from Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, Australia, England, France, and Wales. The first-place prize was given to England that managed to beat the Irish opponents in the final match with the score of 22:18.

Three years later, in 1976, there took place the first Hong Kong tournament that has been mentioned above. The event was attended by teams from the whole Asia-Pacific region. Canterbury and Australia met in the final, and the victory was gained by the New Zealand team.

Following the successful experience of two rugby-15 World Championships and the great popularity of the Hong Kong tournament, the International Rugby Council decided to organize the first rugby-7s World Championships in 1993. All the matches took place, while England managed to become a winner of the tournament. After that, the World Championships became a regular event that took place every four years. After 1993, the victory in the given competition has been earned by the teams from Fiji, New Zealand, and Wales.