Rugby Sevens

Rugby is unique among major sports in that there are several “codes” or styles of play. Each of these codes has slightly different rules and thus the skills of the players will vary depending on which code they play. The main code both here and in Europe is called Rugby Union. It is the code that the Rugby World Cup is played by and, of course, the All Blacks play in this code. You primarily recognize it for the 8 vs. 8 scrums. Rugby League is the next most popular here, and probably the most popular in Australia. It is a bit silly, in my opinion, since it has only “pretend” scrums and not as much passing or variety in play. Both of these codes use 15 players.

Recently, I learned about another code called Rugby Sevens. As the name suggests, instead of 15 players, there are 7 players on each team. In addition, instead of 80 minutes, the games are only 14 minutes long. You read that right. Even adding in a 1 minute halftime, it is over in less than 20 minutes. This means that an entire tournament for 16 teams and 40 games can be held in 2 days. The compact nature of it has led to the development of a series of Sevens tournaments being held at different locations around the world. It just so happens that Wellington has become one of the prime events on the Sevens calendar.

When tickets went on sale for the Wellington Sevens a few months ago, I wasn’t sure what the big deal was, but it was rugby and I figured I would be able to pick up some tickets as the event got closer if we were still in Wellington. Well, that idea didn’t last long as the tickets (35,000 of them) sold out in 15 minutes or about as long as a single Sevens game lasts.

As the event neared, I still wasn’t sure what to make of it, but they had a neat parade the day before the tournament and it was clear this was a pretty festive occasion. What I didn’t know was just how big of a deal this was. So to give you a taste of what this was like, I went down on the second day just to feel the “vibe” of the tournament and take a few photos.

So, think Halloween/Mardi Gras with a few sports fans mixed in. I’m not kidding when I say that at least 80% of the crowd had some sort of costume. And the impressive part was the coordination. Almost everyone was part of a larger group that had a theme of some sort. Even after culling the photos I took to just the better ones, I still have 153 out on flickr (click here for a slideshow of all of them). It was VERY funny and a neat event. I’m very glad I went down there as I just can’t think of of anything in the US that compares.