European Union
All kind of International Rugby Events, like June Tours, Pacific cups and all others.
IRB Sevens Series
Match scheduled:
Date: 29-05-2010
Time: 08:15 until 18:15
Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens Festival Games 1 - 24
Watch live rugby TV
The IRB Sevens World Series, known officially as the IRB Sevens before the 2006-07 season and also sometimes called the World Sevens Series, is a series of international rugby union sevens tournaments organised for the first time in the 1999-2000 season. The tournaments, run by the International Rugby Board, feature national sevens teams. The series was first formed to develop an elite-level competition series between rugby nations and develop the Sevens game into a viable commercial product for the IRB. In 2005–06, the tour received 1147 hours of air time, 530 of which was live, and was broadcast to 136 countries.[1] By 2008–09, the hours of air time had increased to over 3300, with 35 broadcasters airing the series in 139 countries and 15 languages.[1]
Teams compete for the Sevens World Series title by accumulating points based on their finishing position in each tournament. Each season's circuit currently consists of eight tournaments in seven countries, and visits five of the six populated continents. The United Arab Emirates, South Africa, New Zealand, United States, Hong Kong, Australia, England and Scotland each host one event. Depending on the venue and scheduling of the quadrennial Rugby World Cup Sevens, one of the tournaments may be folded into the World Cup. For example, because the 2005 World Cup was held in Hong Kong and scheduled for roughly the same time as the annual Hong Kong Sevens, the Hong Kong Sevens was folded into the World Cup. However, none of the 2008–09 events were folded into the 2009 World Cup, as that year's World Cup fell three weeks after the USA Sevens and three weeks before the Hong Kong Sevens.
Sevens is a stripped-down version of rugby union with seven players each side on a normal-sized field, rather than the normal fifteen. Games are much shorter, lasting only seven or ten minutes each half, and tend to be very fast-paced, open, affairs. Sevens is traditionally played in a two-day tournament format, with the Hong Kong Sevens (an anomaly as a three-day event) being the most famous. The game is quicker and higher-scoring than 15-a-side rugby and the rules are far simpler, which explains part of its appeal. It also gives players the space for superb feats of individual skill. New Zealand and Fiji are traditionally the strongest teams, although South Africa are the reigning season champions; Samoa ran the two favourites very close for the World Series title in the 2006-07 season; England has been a strong contender in recent years; and Argentina, Australia and France have also won tournaments in recent years.
