The 2007 USA 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 on February 10 and February 11, 2007 in the United States at 44,500 capacity

Petco Park Petco Park is a ballpark in San Diego, California. It is the home of the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). The ballpark is located in the East Village neighborhood of downtown San Diego, adjacent to the Gaslamp Quarter. Petco Par ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. The

USA Sevens The USA Sevens is a rugby sevens tournament held annually during March in the United States. The USA Sevens is the largest annual rugby competition in North America, having drawn over 80,000 fans to events. The USA Sevens was introduced in 2004 ...

is part of the

IRB Sevens World Series The SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World ...

. Although the 2006–07 season is the eighth of the Sevens World Series, this was only the fourth edition of the USA Sevens, which began in 2004 as a part of the 2003-04 series. This was the first time for the event in San Diego with past editions being held at

The Home Depot Center Dignity Health Sports Park is a multi-use sports complex located on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills, in Carson, California. The complex consists of the 27,000-seat Dignity Health Sports Park soccer stadium, the Digni ...

in the

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

suburb of Carson. The overall winners of the event were

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 ...

. American referee Dana Teagarden became the first woman ever to referee a senior-level men's international in any version of rugby union when she officiated the France-Chile match. Teagarden was also referee for the Bowl final, making her the first woman to referee a men's competition final in any version of rugby union.

The Format

As with all normal events in the IRB Sevens (with the exception of the

Hong Kong Sevens The Hong Kong Sevens ( zh, t=香港國際七人欖球賽, link=no) is a 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 competiti ...

), the participating teams are divided into four pools of four. The group winners and second-placed teams progress to the Cup (places 1-4) and Plate (places 5-8) competition. The third and fourth-placed teams progress to the Bowl (places 9-12) and Shield (places 13-16) competitions. Seeding is determined by finishes in the last six competitions in the IRB Sevens. Wins are three points, draws two, losses one, with no points being awarded for a no-show.

Festival

The event is also noted for the large

festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

that takes place alongside the event. In 2007, it included a waterslide, a

beer garden A beer garden (German: ''Biergarten'') is an outdoor area in which beer and food are served, typically at shared tables shaded by trees. Beer gardens originated in Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital city, in the 19th century, and remain co ...

, food courts, skills area, face painting, cigar tents, concerts and a world class coaches’ symposium. Prizes, big and small, were added attractions. This is intended to be not only a rugby event but a big, fun party. The idea is to lure people into the event for the festival and get them interested in

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 ...

Tickets

The window of opportunity for ticket buyers was open for 60 days. After that time, tickets were sold on a first come, best-available basis. Blocks of tickets of 25 or more during this time were discounted 10%. A special "Festival Pass" entitled holders to unlimited access to the Festival and Tournament for all three days. Similar to

Hong Kong Stadium Hong Kong Stadium is the main sports venue of Hong Kong. Redeveloped from the original Government Stadium, it reopened as Hong Kong Stadium in March 1994. It has a maximum seating capacity of 40,000, including 18,260 at the main level, 3,173 at ...

's south stands, Petco Park hosted a "Fun Zone" in the right field

bleachers Bleachers (North American English), or stands, are raised, tiered rows of benches found at sports-fields and at other spectator events. Stairways provide access to the horizontal rows of seats, often with every other step enabling access to a ...

. Access to this area was granted on the basis of best costumes, country displays of team support, "hot looks", and dancing ability.

Pool stages

Pool A

Pool B

Pool C

Pool D

Knockout rounds

* 1/4 final Bowl (Match 25) – Argentina 17 – 10 Portugal * 1/4 final Bowl (Match 26) – Chile 12 – 31 Kenya * 1/4 final Bowl (Match 27) – USA 7 – 14 Canada * 1/4 final Bowl (Match 28) – Tonga 22 – 5 West Indies * 1/4 final Cup (Match 29) – Fiji 26 – 21 South Africa * 1/4 final Cup (Match 30) – New Zealand 19 – 7 England * 1/4 final Cup (Match 31) – Australia 7 – 10 France * 1/4 final Cup (Match 32) – Samoa 34 – 0 Scotland * SF Shield (Match 33) – Portugal 42 – 10 Chile * SF Shield (Match 34) – USA 17 – 0 West Indies * SF Bowl (Match 35) – Argentina 22 – 5 Kenya * SF Bowl (Match 36) – Canada 10 – 24 Tonga * SF Plate (Match 37) – South Africa 21 – 14 England * SF Plate (Match 38) – Australia 7 – 17 Scotland * SF Cup (Match 39) – Fiji 19 – 10 New Zealand * SF Cup (Match 40) – France 0 – 38 Samoa * Final Shield (Match 41) – Portugal 5 – 26 USA * Final Bowl (Match 42) – Argentina 17 – 22 Tonga * Final Plate (Match 43) – South Africa 28 – 19 Scotland * Final Cup (Match 44) – Fiji 38 – 24 Samoa

Round 4 table

References

External links

Official USA Sevens Homepage
*
Index of World Sevens series
{{DEFAULTSORT:Usa Sevens 2006–07 IRB Sevens World Series Sports competitions in San Diego 2007 2007 in American rugby union 2007 in sports in California 2007 rugby sevens competitions 2000s in San Diego