Sport | Rugby sevens |
---|---|
Founded | 2007 |
Countries | 10 (in 2016) |
Most recent champion(s) |
Australia (2016) |
The Oceania Women's Sevens is the regional championship for women's international rugby sevens in Oceania. The tournament is held over two days, typically on a weekend. It is sanctioned and sponsored by Oceania Rugby, which is the rugby union governing body for the region.
Rugby sevens — also known as 7-a-side, or 7s — is a short form of the sport of rugby union that was first played in 1883. The first (men's) internationals took place in 1973. As women's rugby union developed in the 1960s and 1970s the format became very popular as it allowed games, and entire leagues, to be developed in countries even when player numbers were small, and it remains the main form the women's game is played in most parts of the world.
However, although the first women's international rugby union 15-a-side test match took place in 1982, it was not until 1997 before the first women's international 7s tournaments were played, when the 1997 Hong Kong Sevens included a women's tournament for the first time. Over the next decade the number of tournaments grew, with almost every region developing regular championship competitions. This reached its zenith with the first Women's Sevens World Cup in 2009, shortly followed by the announcement that women's rugby sevens will be included in the Olympics from 2016.
The first official regional 7s championship for international women's teams from Oceania was the Pacific tournament held in Port Moresby in 2007. This was followed by the Oceania Championship in 2008. The Oceania Women's Sevens has periodically served as the regional pre-qualifying competition for the Rugby 7s World Cup, or other sevens tournaments.
The following are details of all official regional women's international championships played in the Oceania/Pacific region since the first tournament in 2007, listed chronologically with the earliest first, with all result details, where known (included are the Oceania Women's Sevens and other official regional championships, e.g. the Pacific Women's Sevens tournament).