2016 Wellington Sevens

2016 Wellington Sevens
Sevens World Series XVII
Host nation	New Zealand
Date	30–31 January 2016
Cup
Champion	New Zealand
Runner-up	South Africa
Third	Fiji
Plate
Winner	Australia
Runner-up	Argentina
Bowl
Winner	Samoa
Runner-up	Scotland
Shield
Winner	France
Runner-up	Russia
Tournament details
Matches played	45
← 2015 2017 →

The 2016 New Zealand Sevens was the third tournament within the 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series and the seventeenth edition of the Wellington Sevens. It was held over the weekend 30–31 January 2016 at Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand.

The teams were drawn into four pools of four teams each. Each team plays every other team in their pool once. The top two teams from each pool advanced to the Cup/Plate brackets. The bottom two teams from each group went to the Bowl/Shield brackets.

The 16 participating teams for the tournament:

Final squads were announced on 28 January 2016. The most notable announced addition was the debut of 2015 Rugby World Cup winner Sonny Bill Williams for New Zealand.

Cup

The Cup final of the 2016 Wellington Sevens was contested by New Zealand and South Africa, after they won their semi-final matches against England and Fiji respectively. It was the second time the two teams met in the tournament, after New Zealand won their Pool A match 19–14 the previous day.

New Zealand's Sonny Bill Williams dropped the ball from the kick-off, immediately giving possession straight back to South Africa. They led 7–0 with a converted try to Philip Snyman after three minutes, which was soon increased to 14–0 after Roscko Speckman scored from a five meter scrum. Cheslin Kolbe converted both tries. Akira Ioane scored a try for New Zealand 30 seconds before half-time, which Kurt Baker converted, making the scoreline 14-7 at the break.

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