Rugby World Cup Sevens

The Rugby World Cup Sevens is the premier stand-alone international rugby sevens competition. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Rugby Board (IRB), and is contested by the men's national sevens teams every four years. The inaugural tournament was held in 1993 in Scotland, the birthplace of rugby sevens. New Zealand are the current World Champions having won the competition in 2013. Fiji and New Zealand have won the tournament twice. England and Wales have won a single tournament, while both Australia and South Africa have reached the finals, but have not secured a title.

The winners of the tournament are awarded the Melrose Cup, named after the Scottish town of Melrose where the first rugby sevens game was played.

Prior to the inclusion of Rugby Sevens into the Olympic Games, the IRB stated that their intention would be 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 announed that the competition would be retained, and integrated into the Olympic calendar, meaing that a meaningful elite level competition would take place every two years from 2016.

In order to achieve this, 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. It is intended that this competition will be markedly larger in terms of team numbers than the Olympic tournament.

History
The Rugby World Cup Sevens originated with a proposal by the Scottish Rugby Union to the International Rugby Football Board. The inaugural tournament was held at Murrayfield in Edinburgh in April 1993, and has been held every four years since.

Hong Kong, which had played a major role in the international development of the Sevens game, hosted the 1997 event. The final was won by Fiji over South Africa. The 2001 tournament, held in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The 2005 event returned to Hong Kong.

The IRB made a submission to the International Olympic Committee in 2005 for Sevens to become an Olympic sport. However, the submission failed because committee members felt IRB needed to improve promotion of the women's game. To that end, the IRB implemented the first women's Sevens Rugby World Cup tournament in 2009.

The 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens was held in Dubai during the first weekend of March 2009 and included a separate women's tournament. Cumulative attendance was 78,000.

Prior to the inclusion of Rugby Sevens into the Olympic Games, the IRB stated that their intention would be to end the World Cup Sevens so that the Olympic Games would be the one pinnacle in a four year cycle for Rugby Sevens. The adoption of rugby sevens and golf was recommended to the full IOC council by its executive board ahead of squash, karate, roller sports, baseball and softball in August 2009. The International Olympic Committee voted in 2009 in Copenhagen for sevens to become a medal sport at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The IRB Council in 2010 awarded the hosting of the 2013 tournament to Moscow, Russia from a field of eight nations that had expressed formal interest in hosting. The IRB intended that the exposure to rugby from hosting the World Cup Sevens would accelerate the growth of rugby in Russia.

The IRB had said the 2013 World Cup – featuring 24 men's teams and 16 women's teams – would be the last one. However, following feedback from its member unions, the IRB's general assembly in October may vote on whether the tournament should continue. The principal concern is the inequity that Sevens at the Olympics would accommodate only 12 teams.

The IRB announced on June 12 2013 that the Rugby World Cup Sevens would continue after 2013, with the next tournament set for 2018 and for every four years after that. Following the IRB's announcement, several nations officially announced their intention to bid to host the 2018 tournament – including the United States and Wales.

Men's
The 2001 tournament, held in Argentina, added another chapter to the legend of New Zealand's Jonah Lomu. Lomu, used sparingly in pool play, received his opportunity when New Zealand captain and Sevens legend Eric Rush broke his leg against England in the last pool match. Lomu went on to score three tries in the final.

In 2005, Waisale Serevi came out of international retirement to captain and lead them to their second Melrose Cup. In the process, they denied New Zealand their second consecutive Melrose Cup and also prevented England from becoming the first nation to hold the Rugby World Cup in both fifteens and Sevens.

At the 2009 tournament in Dubai, Wales, Samoa, Argentina and Kenya combined to stun the rugby world by defeating the traditional powerhouses of New Zealand, England, South Africa and Fiji in the quarter-finals, guaranteeing a new Melrose Cup winner. Wales and Argentina met in the final after winning their semi-final games, with Wales triumphing 19–12. Wales' Taliesin Selley was named player of the tournament.

The top all-time try-scorer for the Rugby World Cup Sevens has been Fijian rugby winger Marika Vunibaka who has scored 23 tries in 3 of the sevens world cups he has played in since his debut in 1997.