Rugby World Cup Sevens
| Rugby World Cup Sevens | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Sport | Rugby union sevens |
| Instituted | 1993 (men), 2009 (women) |
| Number of teams | 24 (men), 16 (women) |
| Holders |
 New Zealand (men) New Zealand (women) (2013)
|
The Rugby World Cup Sevens is the premier stand-alone international rugby sevens competition. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, World Rugby (WR), and is contested every four years with tournaments for men's and women's national teams co-hosted at the same venues. The inaugural tournament was held in 1993 in Scotland, the birthplace of rugby sevens. The winners of the men's tournament are awarded the Melrose Cup, named after the Scottish town of Melrose where the first rugby sevens game was played. The women's tournament was inaugurated at the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens held in Dubai.
New Zealand are the current men's and women's World Champions having won both tournaments in 2013. Fiji and New Zealand have won the men's tournament twice. England and Wales have won a single tournament each, while both Australia and South Africa have reached tournament finals but not secured a title.
Australia and New Zealand are the only nations to have been women's World Champions, having won the first and second Rugby World Cup Sevens tournaments respectively in 2009 and 2013.
In 2009, after the inclusion of rugby sevens at the Olympic Games was announced, the International Rugby Board (IRB, now World Rugby) stated that their intention was to end the World Cup Sevens so that the Olympic Games would be the one pinnacle in a four-year cycle for rugby sevens. However, following consultation, the IRB announced that the competition would be retained, and integrated into the Olympic calendar, meaning that a meaningful elite level competition would take place every two years from 2016. The World Cup will be also markedly larger in terms of team numbers than the Olympic tournament. The first competition after Olympic integration is set to take place in 2018, which will entail a one-off five-year gap from the 2013 competition.
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