I R B Sevens Rugby

It is believed that 7's Rugby started in 1887 in Scotland, when a dispute in the club caused a split, but neither had sufficient players to field 15 man squads, so a local butcher invented a seven a side format to allow the competition to go ahead.

Sevens Rugby or Rugby Sevens is an abbreviated form of Rugby Union 15 man game. The duration of a game of Sevens is normaly 14 minutes,7 minutes per half with a one minute interval at half time. Each team has only seven players and the game is normaly played on a full size rugby field being 50m wide by 100m long. Sevens Rugby is over seen by the IRB (International Rugby Board), which over sees all Rugby Union.

Sevens Rugby originated in Scotland in Melrose, where their annual competition still takes place today. Sevens is followed and played more widely internationally, with teams in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific Islands and Asia, all taking part in the HSBC Sevens tournaments held in various countries annualy. Added to this is the Rugby World cup Sevens, The Common Wealth Games Sevens as well as the IRB Sevens World Series and it is now also an Olympic recognised sport.

The standard team consisits of two props, a hooker, scrum half, fly half a center and a wing, but because of the speed of the game the scrum is normaly filled by loose forwards. Scrums consist of three players not eight, all conversions are drop kicked and yellow cards are 2 minutes in the sin bin.

Sevens Rugby was conceived by two Scots Ned Haig and David Sanderson, two butchers way back in 1883,how ever it was only in the 1920 and 1930s that this form of rugby caught on in England. The first ever international competition was held at Murrayfield in 1973 in the Scottish centenary celebrations. 3 years later the Hong Kong Sevens was launched and is still part of the IRB Sevens tournament today. Over 100 countries internationally have teams that compete against one another. The IRB Sevens competition is made up of 24 international teams.

The IRB Rugby World Cup Sevens has always been the most prestigious competition to win in the Sevens calendar, but this is now changing as the 2016 Olympic games in Brazil will host the first Olympic Sevens competition. Sevens rugby is now a core sport at the Common Wealth Games and is also played at the Pan American Games, Asian Games and the Pacific Games.