The 1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens was held at

Murrayfield Murrayfield is an affluent area to the west of Edinburgh city centre in Scotland. It is to the east of Corstorphine and north of Balgreen and Roseburn. The A8 road runs east–west through the south of the area. Murrayfield is often con ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

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, in April 1993. This tournament was the inaugural

Rugby World Cup Sevens Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWCS) is the quadrennial world championship of rugby sevens, a variant of rugby union. Organised by World Rugby, it currently consists of men's and women's tournaments, and is the highest level of competition in the sport ...

tournament. The

International Rugby Board World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international ru ...

invited the established rugby union nations but also were keen to involve emerging nations in the event, recognising the fact that Sevens was providing the bridge between the developed rugby nations and those whose rugby union traditions were less well established. The IRB situated the tournament in the spiritual home nation of rugby sevens, Scotland. The games were played at the home of Scottish rugby, Murrayfield Stadium. England defeated Australia 21–17 to become the first team to win the Melrose Cup.

Background

Prior to 1993, Rugby Sevens had already built up a substantial international presence. The relative ease with which the rules could be learnt and applied, combined with the ability to quickly organise teams due to fewer players, as well as providing a fast-paced game for spectators enticed many nations to set up domestic tournaments, and appealed to a large international audience outside of the established power houses of the traditional 15-a-side game. Such was the international popularity of the game that the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; gd, Aonadh Rugbaidh na h-Alba) is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Styled as Scottish Rugby, it is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league s ...

(SRU) were able to organise a well attended International Tournament in 1973 to celebrate the centenary of the SRU. England came away victorious from that first international event. Soon after, in early 1975 the Chairman of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union, A.D.C. "Tokkie" Smith, was talking with tobacco company executive Ian Gow. Gow had been a spectator at the 1973 event and had proposed to Smith to sponsor a Rugby tournament with top teams from throughout the world competing. This gave rise to the inaugural

Hong Kong Sevens The Hong Kong Sevens () is an 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 s ...

on 28 March 1976. This tournament grew throughout the 1970s and 1980s in both supporter popularity and the number of participating teams. Sevens was proving to be the bridge between the established international rugby elite and those nations with less resources and less developed professional infrastructures. In the early 1990s, The SRU made a proposal to the International Rugby Football Board for the creation of a Rugby Sevens World Cup. The World Cup for the 15-a-side game had been staged successfully in 1987 and 1991 and had proved the worth of such an event. The IRB, which had a duty to involve and help to develop the rugby of the new member unions, recognised the value of Sevens to further this end, and their chairman, Vernon Pugh, enthusiastically agreed. Thus, the IRB organised the first officially sanctioned Rugby World Cup Sevens to be held at

in April 1993. The ultimate prize of the competition was to be called the Melrose Cup, named after the small Scottish town of Melrose where the Sevens format had been born in 1883. A butchers apprentice and Melrose 20-a-side quarterback, Ned Haig, suggested having a rugby tournament as part of a sports day to raise funds at the end of the rugby season and his boss David Sanderson proposed playing in a tournament that required reduced numbers of players in each team. On 28 April 1883, the Melrose seven-a-side tournament began, with the time of each match limited to 15 minutes. The first World Cup was held 12 days shy of the 110th anniversary of that first tournament.

Squads

Qualification

Of the twenty-four nations involved, nineteen were invited and five had to go through pre-tournament qualification. Four of the qualification places were won by Namibia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Spain who booked their places by reaching the semi-finals of one qualifying event in Sicily. Latvia won their place by beating Russia in the final of a mini-tournament staged in Moscow to decide who would replace the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, which had broken up since its invite to the world cup. The invited participants were Argentina, Australia, Canada, England, Fiji, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Scotland, Tonga, South Africa, South Korea, USA, Wales and Western Samoa.

Format

The 24 nations were drawn into four pools of six teams with the top two progressing to the Melrose Cup, the third to the Plate and the fourth-placed teams contesting the Bowl competition. The groups were arranged thus:

Summary

First round

As expected, the leading nations all made it through. However, only South Africa, New Zealand and Western Samoa could boast unbeaten records at this stage. Fiji, Australia, Tonga, Ireland and England all lost one match in their respective pools. In Pool A Wales, lost to South Africa but distinguished themselves against the powerhouse of sevens rugby, Fiji, coming back from 21–0 down to lose narrowly 21–17. South Africa managed to overcome Fiji in their pool match. In Pool B Ireland had an excellent first round, beating United States 38–0. They lost to New Zealand, who won the group, but finished second. Korea defeated France 14–0 and the French struggled to beat the Netherlands in an earlier tie. However, the French managed to qualify for the Bowl in fourth place, with the surprise being Korea making the Plate competition in third. In Pool C, the hosts Scotland finished fourth behind Argentina in third (although they ended with the same number of match points as the South Americans and had a better points difference they had lost to the Argentinians). The Scots managed to beat eventual group winners Tonga but lost to Australia and Argentina. Both Tonga and Australia lost one match each, and crucially Tonga beat the decider between the two sides meaning that Australia ended second in that group. In Pool D, eventual tournament winners England progressed well but were beaten by the Samoans but 28–10. Samoa went on to win the pool. Despite heavy defeats to England and Samoa, Spain managed to gain third spot just ahead of Canada.

Quarterfinals

The quarterfinals were not knockout but took the form of another round robin with the teams split into two groups. Fiji emerged as the only nation with an unbeaten record after overcoming Ireland, Tonga and Western Samoa in the first. The second group was more fiercely contested with each nation claiming at least one victory. Australia and England who progressed to the semifinals despite their respective defeats by New Zealand and Australia. England had assumed they would top their group and avoid Fiji, even with a defeat to Australia in the final pool game. They opted to rest some first team players but expressed dismay in finding themselves placed second in the group behind Australia. The England team had thought that table placings in the event of a tied points tally were decided on tries scored. However, tournament rules stated that the first differentiator was results between the tied teams.

Cup semifinals and finals

Although England lost to Australia in the quarters, they qualified for the semifinals against the favourites, Fiji. Dave Scully produced what was awarded the "Moment of the Tournament" prize with a tackle on Mesake Rasari that turned a certain Fiji try into an England score. England won 21–7. In the other semifinal Ireland were narrowly beaten 21–19 by the Australians, setting up a final between teams that had already met in the quarterfinal pools. The final was contested by England and Australia. Just before half time, England led 21–0 through tries from

Andrew Harriman Andrew Tuoyo Harriman (born 13 July 1964) is a Nigerian born rugby union player who played as a wing for Harlequins and was capped for England as a full international. He was prominent as an exponent of the sevens game, including leading Engla ...

Lawrence Dallaglio Lorenzo Bruno Nero Dallaglio (born 10 August 1972), known as Lawrence Dallaglio, is an English retired rugby union player, former captain of England, and 2016 inductee of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. He played as a flanker or number eight ...

and

Tim Rodber Timothy Andrew Keith Rodber (born 2 July 1969) is an English former rugby union footballer who played at Number eight, flanker or lock for Northampton Saints, England, and the British and Irish Lions. Background Rodber excelled at rugby from ...

, all converted by Nick Beal. Michael Lynagh scored a try before half time, but failed to convert his own try. In the second half Australia hit back strongly and first

David Campese David Ian Campese, AM (born 21 October 1962), also known as Campo, is a former Australian rugby union player (1982-1996), who was capped by the Wallabies 101 times, and played 85 Tests at wing and 16 at fullback. He retired in 1996 and was aw ...

and then Semi Taupeaafe scored further tries, the latter also converted by Michael Lynagh. However, time ran out on the Australians and it was England captain "Prince"

who was presented with the Melrose Cup by the

Princess Royal Princess Royal is a style customarily (but not automatically) awarded by a British monarch to their eldest daughter. Although purely honorary, it is the highest honour that may be given to a female member of the royal family. There have been se ...

Adedayo Adebayo Adedayo Adeyemi Adebayo (born 30 November 1970 in Ibadan, Nigeria) is a rugby union footballer, who played on the wing for England 8 times between 1996 and 1998. He played club rugby for Bath and Parma and then went on to coach the Scottish-ba ...

, a member of that victorious side later recalled how surprising the victory had been to the players involved in it. He said ''"We were basically a scratch side. We got together for the first time as a team the week before, played one practice match and went on to win! But there were a lot of quality players in that side and looking back that's why we were able to wing it slightly – the talent came through. Looking back though we had no expectations of winning at the start. We didn't know how far we would go. It just happened."''

Plate and Bowl

In the Plate competition, Spain stunned Wales, winning 10–7. Argentina dominated South Korea and came through 24–0. They went on to win the final 19–12 against Spain. Of the four teams contesting the Bowl, Scotland and France met in the semi-final. Scotland overcame the lacklustre French side 14–7, and Japan posted 14 points to Canada's nil to reach the final. Japan beat the hosts in the final winning 33–19. Princess Anne awarded the prizes and Scotland received tankards.

Group stage

Source for the results below:
www.imgmediaarchive.com
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)

Pool A

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Pool B

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Pool C

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Pool D

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Knockout stage

Bowl

Bowl Semifinals

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Bowl Final

Plate

Plate Semifinals

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Plate Final

Melrose Cup

Quarterfinal pools

=Pool E

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=Pool F

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Knockout rounds

=Semifinals

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=Final

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References

External links

*http://www.england-rugby.com/EnglandRugby/index.cfm?fuseaction=News.News_Detail&storyid=22036 *https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby-union--world-cup-sevens-england-survive-samoa-setback-1455912.html *http://nl.truveo.com/Rugby-Sevens-1993-1/id/288230385499097668
Rugby Union / Rugby World Cup Sevens: Australians are tripped by Tu'ivai's drop: Tonga and Argentina strike blows for the underdogs in Edinburgh
{{RWC Sevens Rugby World Cup Sevens

S R 1992–93 in Scottish rugby union

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

World Cup Sevens

Background

Squads

Qualification

Format

Summary

First round

Quarterfinals

Cup semifinals and finals

Plate and Bowl

Group stage

Pool A

Pool B

Pool C

Pool D

Knockout stage

Bowl

Bowl Semifinals

Bowl Final

Plate

Plate Semifinals

Plate Final

Melrose Cup

Quarterfinal pools

=Pool E

=Pool F

Knockout rounds

=Semifinals

=Final

See also

References

External links