World Sevens Series

The World Sevens Series is an international rugby union series of tournaments run by the International Rugby Board. The tournamnets span the globe, with this year's tour covering Dubai, South Africa, New Zealand, Chile, Hong Kong, China, France and England.

Sevens is a stripped down version of rugby union, with seven players on each time rather than fifteen. Games are much shorter, seven or ten minutes each half, and tend to be very fast-paced, open affairs. Sevens is traditionally played in a two day tournament format, with the Hong Kong Sevens being the most famous.

New Zealand and Fiji are traditionally the strongest teams, although recently Australia, England, South Africa and Samoa have all won tournaments.

Previous Winners

• 2000 - New Zealand
• 2001 - New Zealand
• 2002 - New Zealand

http://www.irbsevens.org - The official tournament homepage http://www.rugby7.com - US-based sevens website.