Rugby Sevens

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By Lissie


The utlimate sound bite sport

Sevens is the game rugby you can watch in the commercial break - well almost!

In the last few years the general tendency in the media has been to cater to the shorter and shorter attention spans. We used to have feature articles in newspapers than ran for pages - now its rare to have anything longer than a page. TV current affair shows used to have a 1 story in an hour, now they have 3 or 4.

The same shortening of attention span has occurred in sport. Cricket used to take 5 days, then it was 1 day, now it's 3.5 hours for 20/20 cricket. The same thing has happened in rugby - a full match is 80 minutes. Sevens is the ultimate short match - 2 halfs of 7 minutes each. A game takes 15 minutes. Perfect for TV! An entire tournament can be played in a day or a weekend.

The best known Rugby Sevens tournaments are the Hong Kong Sevens and the Dubai Sevens. Other tournaments are regularly played in Wellington, New Zealand, Adelaide, Australia, Edinburgh,Scotland, USA, South Africa and London, England.

Photo by: Cheri Baby!
Photo by: Cheri Baby!


Photo by: fiestypoo
Photo by: fiestypoo

Sevens and Fitness

Sevens may be a short game but it's an incredibly athletic game with only 7 players per a team on the same size field as normal rugby, which has a team of 15. Scrums are limited to 3 men. The game emphasises speed, control and fitness. Scores are often similar to that of the traditional game because of the greater difficulty in defending with only 7 players.


Photo by: HarlemDakota
Photo by: HarlemDakota

Sevens in the Olympics?

Men's rugby sevens is currently a Commonwealth Games' event and is attempting to become a Olympic sport. The women's version of the game is also due to become a Commonwealth game and is also being added to the Dubai Sevens Tournament from 2009


Hong Kong 7's Photo: feistypoo
Hong Kong 7's Photo: feistypoo

Sevens Crowds: Made for TV!

One of the features of a 7's tournament is the crowd. Tournaments feature great sound systems and the sound track is a feature of the event. The crowd responds by dressing up, with a huge unofficial contest to get on TV wearing the most outrageous costume. In the last Wellington Seven's tournament a group of large middle age men came as "Borats" complete with a green unikini and chest hair and very little else - it was a head turning sight down town at 10am! Unfortunately unikini's are now banned at Wellington and are probably not suitable for viewing on HubPages!


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Maren Morgan M-T profile image

Maren Morgan M-T  says:
2 years ago

Wow! I learn something from you all the time, Lissie!

Caregiver-007 profile image

Caregiver-007  says:
2 years ago

You are a fountain of fresh information, Lissie. I never considered the application of the "Attention Age" concerns and limitations with bombardment of information and soundbytes to our beloved sports! Thumbs up for a great article.

Lissie profile image

Lissie  says:
2 years ago

I never watch ball sports on TV -but I found myself watching 7's mainly for the between games shows! That's where I got the idea from!

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