The Australia Sevens is an international

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 that was first played in 1986. Currently hosted as the Sydney Sevens, the event is part of the

World Rugby Sevens 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 ...

. The tournament was held in Brisbane, in Adelaide, and on the Gold Coast in previous seasons.

History

The NSW Rugby Union hosted an international sevens tournament at

Concord Oval Concord Oval (also Waratah Stadium) is a rugby football stadium in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Concord, Australia. The stadium can hold 5000 people, as of November 2022, down from 20,000 when it opened in 1985. , it is used mostly for r ...

in Sydney from 1986 to 1988, as part of Australia's Bicentennial celebrations. The Australian Rugby Football Union, later the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) and now known as

Rugby Australia Rugby Australia Ltd, previously named Australian Rugby Union Limited and Australian Rugby Football Union Limited, is an Australian company operating the premier rugby union competition in Australia and teams. It has its origins in 1949. It is a ...

, continued the event for a further year in 1989.Sydney 1986–
Rugby 7. The

2000 Brisbane Sevens The 2000 Brisbane Sevens, officially called the 2000 Brisbane International Sevens, was an international rugby sevens tournament that was part of the World Sevens Series in the inaugural 1999–2000 season. It was the Australian Sevens leg of the ...

was the first Australian Sevens tournament in the World Sevens Series run by the International Rugby Board (IRB), now known as

World Rugby 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 ...

. It was the 7th tournament of the series in the inaugural 1999-2000 season and was hosted at

Lang Park Brisbane Stadium (Lang Park), currently known as Suncorp Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in the suburb of Milton, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Nicknamed The Cauldron, it is a three-tiered rectangular sporting st ...

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 ...

played

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 ...

in the final, and won the match in the dying seconds, thanks to a brilliant try to

Waisale Serevi Waisale Tikoisolomoni Serevi (born 20 May 1968) is a Fijian former rugby union football player and coach, and is a member of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. Serevi is renowned for his achievements in rugby sevens, while also enjoying a long car ...

. Brisbane's hosting rights for 2001 were withdrawn by the IRB because of the Australian Federal Government's sporting boycott of Fiji, imposed after the

2000 Fijian coup d'état The 2000 Fijian coup d'état was a civilian coup d'état by an armed group of indigenous Fijian nationalists supported by the Counter Revolutionary Warfare Unit, against the elected government of Indo-Fijian Prime Minister Mahendra Chau ...

. After sanctions were lifted later in 2001, the remaining two tournaments of Brisbane's four-year hosting agreement were played and won by

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in 2002 and 2003 respectively. Australia was not awarded a World Sevens tournament for the next three years. Adelaide secured the hosting rights for the 2006/07 season. The

2007 Adelaide Sevens The 2007 Adelaide Sevens, promoted as the International Rugby Sevens Adelaide 2007, was a rugby sevens tournament that was part of the IRB Sevens World Series in the 2006–07 season. It was the Australian Sevens leg of the series, held over th ...

took place in April of that year, replacing the

Singapore Sevens The Singapore Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament contested by national teams. It was first hosted as part of the IRB World Sevens Series in 2002. The Standard Chartered Bank was the original title sponsor. It was effectively replaced i ...

in the calendar. The tournament was hosted at

Adelaide Oval The Adelaide Oval is a stadium in Adelaide in the state of South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Parklands, parklands. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby league, ...

for five seasons, with the last edition of the Adelaide Sevens being held in 2011. In April 2011, the ARU announced that the Australian leg of the Sevens World Series would be played at

Skilled Park Robina Stadium, commercially known as Cbus Super Stadium, is a multi-purpose rectangular stadium in Robina, a suburb of Gold Coast, Queensland. It is the home ground to the National Rugby League's Gold Coast Titans, this venue sometimes host ...

on the Gold Coast for at least the next four years. The tournament was scheduled for the early part of the 2011/12 season, which meant that two World Sevens events were played in Australia in 2011. The Gold Coast tournament was initially named the "International Rugby Sevens Gold Coast", but was later rebranded as the Gold Coast Sevens. The Gold Coast attendances for the 2013 and 2014 events were lower than expected, and in March 2015 the ARU announced that Sydney would host the event for the next four years from the 2015–16 season. With the closure and rebuilding of

Sydney Football Stadium Sydney Football Stadium may refer to: * Sydney Football Stadium (1988), the original stadium which was demolished in 2019. * Sydney Football Stadium (2022) Sydney Football Stadium, currently known as Allianz Stadium for sponsorship reasons, i ...

, both men's and women's events for the Sydney Sevens tournament were moved to

Sydney Showground Stadium Sydney Showground Stadium (also known as Engie Stadium due to naming rights) is a sports and events stadium located at the Sydney Showground in Sydney Olympic Park, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It hosted the baseball events f ...

in 2019, and

Western Sydney Stadium Western Sydney Stadium, currently known as CommBank Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in the suburb of Parramatta, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It replaced the demolished Parramatta Stadium (1986) which in turn ...

for 2020.

Results

Invitational tournament

World Rugby Sevens Series

Team records

Summary of results in the Australian leg of the World Rugby Sevens Series: Updated to the 2024 tournament Notes:

References

External links

Official website

Adelaide IRB Sevens profile on UR7s.com
*

{{Rugby union in Australia Rugby sevens competitions in Australia World Rugby Sevens Series tournaments Recurring sporting events established in 1986 1986 establishments in Australia