New Zealand Sevens (tournament)
| Most recent season or competition: 2023 New Zealand Sevens | |
 | |
| Sport | Rugby sevens |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2000 |
| No. of teams | 16 |
| Country | New Zealand |
| Most recent champion(s) |  Argentina (2023) |
| Most titles |  New Zealand (10 titles) |
| Official website | sevens.co.nz |
The New Zealand Sevens was an annual rugby sevens tournament held at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton, New Zealand.[1][2] For the first eighteen years of its history the event was held in Wellington.[1][3] The event was the third on the World Rugby Sevens Series circuit and is generally held in late January or early February.
History
[edit]Wellington
[edit]Wellington first hosted a tournament in 2000 as part of the inaugural Sevens World Series. The event was the first to be held in the newly-developed Westpac Stadium.[4] The tournament built a reputation for a party atmosphere, with a large proportion of attendees choosing to wear fancy dress.[5] Movie figures such as the Men in Black (MIB) and Austin Powers were crowd favorites and an impersonator of Austin Powers was a regular for many years performing for the crowd.[4] Host team New Zealand dominated the sevens competition in Wellington, winning just over half of all the tournaments held.
Hamilton
[edit]The location of the tournament was moved to Hamilton in 2018,[3] after attendances in Wellington had declined.[6] The tournament was hosted as part of an integrated men's and women's event from 2019.[7] Discussion was also begun on alternating the host location of the tournament between Hamilton and Suva, in Fiji, following the 2020 edition.[8][9]
Results
[edit]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b "HSBC New Zealand Sevens: Hamilton". Sky. 18 January 2018. Archived from the original on 23 January 2018. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
- ^ "HSBC New Zealand Sevens". HamiltonNew Zealand. 22 May 2017. Archived from the original on 23 January 2018. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
- ^ a b "New Zealand Sevens World Series event moving to Hamilton from 2018". Stuff. 22 May 2017. Archived from the original on 23 January 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
- ^ a b "Sevens' man steps away from annual city 'party'". Dominion Post. 3 August 2013. Archived from the original on 30 January 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
- ^ "Sevens Rugby - the party, the costumes, the players". Talking Rugby Union. 30 July 2014. Archived from the original on 30 January 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
- ^ "Plenty of finger-pointing about demise of the Wellington Sevens". Stuff. 8 February 2016. Archived from the original on 24 January 2017. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
- ^ "Rugby sevens: Hamilton sevens to stage men and women". The New Zealand Herald. 23 February 2018. Archived from the original on 24 February 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
- ^ "New Zealand Sevens tournament could alternate between Hamilton and Fiji". Stuff. 14 March 2019. Archived from the original on 14 March 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
- ^ "Pacific Island nations possible hosts for NZ Sevens - NZ Rugby boss Steve Tew". Stuff. 25 July 2018. Archived from the original on 14 March 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
- ^ "2021 Hamilton, Sydney Sevens cancelled due to COVID-19". ESPN. 4 September 2021. Archived from the original on 4 September 2021.
- ^ Ekin, Kim (3 September 2021). "Four stages of World Rugby Sevens Series cancelled in space of an hour". Rugby Pass. Archived from the original on 3 September 2021.
External links
[edit]- New Zealand Sevens official site
- Profile on UR7s.com at the Wayback Machine (archived 12 May 2016)