The 2000 Punta del Este Sevens was a

Rugby Sevens 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. R ...

tournament held in

Punta del Este Punta del Este () is a seaside city and peninsula on the Atlantic Coast in the Maldonado Department of southeastern Uruguay. Starting as a small town, Punta del Este grew to become a resort for the Latin and North American jet set and tourists. T ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

and was the third leg of the 1999-2000 World Sevens Series. The competition took place on 7 and 8 January at the Campus de Maldonado. The hosts,

were eliminated in the Plate semi-finals. For the third consecutive event in the

Series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used i ...

, the Cup final was contested between

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. The Punta del Este Sevens was not included on the World Sevens circuit for the 2000-01 series.

Teams

Sixteen national teams played in the tournament with New Zealand and Fiji being seeded one and two due to winning the previous two tournaments in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

and

Stellenbosch Stellenbosch (; )A Universal Pronouncing Gazetteer.
Thomas Baldwin ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

were debuting on the world stage after becoming a member of the

International Rugby Board World Rugby is the 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 competit ...

as they were invited to compete in Punta del Este and

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Argentine Sea, Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón Partido, General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires ...

Format

The pool stage was played on the first day of the tournament. The 16 teams were separated into four pools of four teams and teams in the same pool played each other once. The top two teams in each pool advanced to the Cup quarterfinals to compete for the 2000 Punta del Este Sevens title.

Summary

The first day of the Punta del Este Sevens saw three teams end the day unbeaten from their pool stages. In Pool A, it was New Zealand who had an handful of players playing rugby sevens for the first time finishing top with victories over

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

(50–5), Peru (63–0) and

(24–5). Joint-leaders in the series heading into the round, Fiji only conceded twelve points in their group to finish top of the group with

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

coming in second place. The other team that finished unbeaten throughout Day 1 was

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

who just slightly edged over

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

, 19–12 in the fifth game of Pool D to finish top of the pool. Pool C was the only group to not have an unbeaten team with

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

forcing an tiebreaker after defeating

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

28–21. But Chile was the unlucky team with the team being the lowest in point average off the three teams. The second day of the tournament saw the first

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

match in the series history with South Africa defeating Argentina 24–19 in the cup quarter final after they initially were locked at 19-all during regulation. After recording victories over South Africa and Samoa in the semi-finals respectively, New Zealand and Fiji met in the third consecutive cup final. During the final, an injury to Fijian player Waisele Serevi occurred in the 14th minute of the final with the score at 21–19. The injury saw New Zealand score three more tries and go to the top of the table with a 42–19 victory.

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

won the plate final for the third consecutive event defeating Canada while

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

took out the bowl defeating

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Pool stage

Pool A

Source
World Rugby
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World Rugby
/small>

Pool B

Source
World Rugby
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World Rugby
/small>

Pool C

Source
World Rugby
/small> ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Source
World Rugby
/small>

Pool D

Source
World Rugby
/small> ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Source
World Rugby
/small>

Finals

Bowl

Source
World Rugby
/small>

Plate

Source
World Rugby
/small>

Cup

Source
World Rugby
/small>

Tournament placings

Source
Rugby7.com
ref name = standings-2000/>

References

{{1999–2000 World Sevens Series

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Punta del Este Sevens

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...