History of Rugby Sevens

The origins of rugby sevens can be likened to those of basketball: both were documented inventions, in the late 19th century, of people that never imagined they were creating sports that would not only endure, but be played worldwide. What James Naismith was to basketball, Ned Haig was to Sevens.

Ned Haig was born in 1858 in Jedburgh, in the part of Scotland known as the Borders, and moved to the neighboring town of Melrose where he became a playing member of the Melrose Football Club.

It was in 1883 that Haig devised a seven-a-side tournament to make money for his club. "Want of money." he wrote later, "made us rack our brains as to what was to be done to keep the club from going to the wall, and the idea struck me that a football tournament might be attractive. But as it was hopeless to think of having several games in one afternoon with fifteen players on each side, the teams were reduced to seven men."

The first seven-a-side rugby tournament was held in Melrose on April 28, 1883. The seven team tournament was won by Melrose, who defeated Gala in overtime, one try to none.

The festive nature that we associate with sevens was part of the first tournament, as the following quote from the Border Advertiser of May 2, 1883 indicates.

By the time this event . . . commenced an enormous crowd of spectators had assembled, special trains having been run from Galashiels and Hawick and about 1600 tickets being taken at Melrose during the day. . . . The Galashiels Brass Band, in uniform, came by the special train and discoursed music at intervals, the light fantastic being tripped by a good few of the young people to its strains.

Now well into its second century, the Melrose Sevens remains the king of the Scottish 7s' tournaments, and a trip to the Melrose Sevens is an annual pilgrimage undertaken by thousands of Scots (and others).

The Melrose Sevens and its history will be described in greater detail in a following chapter.

Sevens in Scotland: the early years

The success of the Melrose 7s was contagious, and within a few years, several Borders 7s' tournaments followed in Melrose's footsteps. The Gala 7s were inaugurated in 1884, followed by Hawick in 1885, Jedforest in 1894, and Langholm in 1908.

When Britain returned to sports at the conclusion of World War I, sevens was still a game confined not only to Scotland, but to the Borders region alone. Expansion in the Borders continued immediately with the addition of the Selkirk and Kelso 7s in 1919 and 1920.

1920 also saw the first 7s' tournament outside the Borders, run by the Royal High School in Edinburgh to aid a War memorial fund. Within the next two years Edinburgh Institution and Kelvinside (Glasgow) followed.

Sevens moves to England

In the early 1920s, sevens finally crossed the border to the south. Spurred on by their visits to the Borders' tournaments, several clubs in the north of England began to hold their own sevens' tournaments (North Shields, Rockcliffe, Northumberland, and Carlisle at least), between 1921 and 1923.

Middlesex

Finally, in 1926, sevens made it to London: on April 24, 1926, the first Middlesex Sevens was played. Whereas the aim of the Melrose club in 1883 had been to raise money for their club, the Middlesex committee's aim was to make their tournament a fun event, in order to end the rugby season in a cheerful social atmosphere.

The winner of the Middlesex sevens for the first four year of its existence, 1926-29, were the Harlequins, who, 60 years later have duplicated their feat by winning Middlesex in 1986-89.

Middlesex would soon be able to boast of being the largest 7s' tournament in the world, selling out the 60,000 seat Twickenham stadium annually.

Because of its importance as probably the best-attended sevens' tournament in the world, Middlesex is treated in more detail in another chapter.

Those "magnificent" London Scottish

No history on sevens could be complete without mentioning the London Scottish team of the 1960s that continues to live on in legend and lore.

London Scottish dominated the Middlesex Sevens, winning in 1960-63 and 1965. Added to this and two Melrose Sevens' victories (1962 and 1965) were large numbers of victories in other sevens' tournaments.

Whereas part of London Scottish's success was certainly related to their success in fifteens (twice in 1963 they supplied 7 players to the Scotland XV), they are still remembered for the revolutionary style they brought to the game.

Charlie Hodgson, a member of the 1965 Melrose championship seven, notes that whereas the Borders style was more traditional and based on going forward and rewinning possession at tackle situations, this was a new style. It didn't look as neat as the Border style but it was very effective. If the wing didn't have a clear run, for example, he was encouraged just to stop and come back and move the ball. It was a style that was based on possession. They'd actually stand around quite a bit just moving the ball back across the field. They were prepared to go back, everyone was backing up behind the ball.

This style of sevens, known as the "possession" or "keep-away" style, remains as perhaps the most popular way to play the game today.

Scottish was led, both in fifteens and sevens, by their brilliant fly half, Iain Laughland. "He was the little general," notes Hodgson, "he was in charge of all the tacktics and everything." Melrose historian Jack Dun, who has been to more than 50 years of sevens, adds "Iain Laughland was the king. He was the one that had the gift . . . " London Scottish's pre-eminence in sevens paralleled his career, and did not live after him. The style of play they developed, however, did. And to this day, in the British isles, the London Scottish are remembered with reverence by sevens' aficionados.

Sevens in Wales

The date of the introduction of sevens into Wales is not known exactly; the first major sevens' tournament, the Snelling Sevens, was first held in 1954, and 1966 marked the beginning of the Welsh Rugby Union National Sevens.

The Snelling Sevens continues today as at least a semi- successful tournament, held annually at Newport's Rodney Parade; it attracts crowds of about 3000 interested, but not wildly enthusiastic, fans.

The Welsh national club sevens championship was less successful, and ultimately folded. The last Welsh club 7s champions were Cardiff College (A.K.A. South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education), in 1982.

There are several "popular" tournaments in Wales, including those at Aberavon, Cardiff High School Old Boys, and Old Penarthians. These, however, seem to derive their popularity from the "day out for the family" perspective, rather than from an intrinsic love of the game. Basically, there has not been that much interest in Wales for the 7-man game.

Despite this apparent lack of enthusiasm for sevens, Wales surprised the world by being the first of the Home Countries to send an official national side to the Hong Kong Sevens, in 1990. They were rewarded for their efforts by a stunning quarterfinal upset victory over Australia.

Sevens in Ireland

Sevens is not widely played in Ireland, although it goes back much further than most people realize, and actually predates Middlesex by a couple of weeks. The Evening Mail Sevens was played annually from 1926 until 1946, and was competed for by all the Leinster Senior Clubs. Dublin University were the most frequent winners, with six championships.

The early 1950s saw the introduction of two junior sevens' competitions: the Keating Cup and the North Kildare RFC Sevens. The Keating Cup was originally contested on Palm Sunday at the Old Belvedere ground. Although it was well-attended, it folded in 1979. It has been resuscitated in the 1980s, but at another ground and in September. The North Kildare Sevens, held on Easter Sunday, continues. Early big winners at these tournaments were St. Mary's College and U.C.D. (University College, Dublin). Lately no single team has dominated.

Old Belvedere coach George Hook, multi-talented coaching consultant to the USARFU, notes that as a player with St. Mary's, he was a seven-time winner in these two tournaments.

The first existing senior 7s' tournament of note, the Old Belvedere Sevens, did not begin until 1971. Loughborough Colleges and London Welsh, between them, won the first four tournaments, which was not won by an Irish side until the Dublin Wanderers 1975 victory.

Of recent years, the [London] Harlequins have dominated this tournament, as they have virtually every sevens' tournament they have chosen to enter.

The Irish Wolfhounds are a regular fixture and a crowd favorite at the Hong Kong 7s. Very often, however, the "stars" of the side are non-Irish guest players.

Sevens beyond the British Isles

Sevens' growth beyond Scotland shortly extended not only to the remaining British nations but throughout the world. In the program that commemorated the Melrose Sevens' Centenary in 1983 the following dates and countries are noted:

• 1920 Fiji
• 1920 Buenos Aires
• 1930 Vancouver
• 1938 Amsterdam
• 1949 Malawi
• 1953 Ontario
• 1955 Quebec
• 1956 Hong Kong
• 1960 Alberta
• 1970 Manitoba
• 1970 Wellington (NZ)
• 1972 Paris
• 1975 New Brunswick (Canada)

This was obviously a very incomplete list, and although many additions will be made in the material that follows, much research remains to be done for the 7s' historian.

Sevens in New Zealand

Contrary to what most of us thought, sevens is not a new phenomenon in New Zealand. The sport not only goes back at least into the 1940s, but a club championship, the Middlesex Cup, has been held annually since 1951.

The Middlesex Cup. Throughout the first 25 years of the Middlesex Cup the tournament was moved to sites throughout New Zealand; since 1978, however, the tournament has been restricted to sites within South Island.

The tournament format was changed in 1988, when the Hong Kong format -- Cup, Plate, and Bowl divisions -- was introduced and the tournament played at Balfour (Southland). Bracket champions were Central Pirates, Balfour, and Mossburn, respectively.

Although all New Zealand clubs are invited to the Middlesex Cup, to date it has not been an important tournament. The late New Zealand RFU secretary Barry Usmar wrote in 1989, however, that "it is the intention of the NZRFU Matches Sub-Committee to endeavor to lift the status of the Tournament in the future."

The Taupiri Sevens. Despite the long-lived Middlesex Cup, real high-level club sevens seems to have been introduced to New Zealand only in 1984 with the advent of the Taupiri Sevens, held in the Waikato dairy farming village at the foot of Taupiri Mountain. All the top Auckland and Waikato sides attend, and the majority of the players that will represent the All-Blacks at Hong Kong can usually be found at Taupiri playing for their club.

Originally an endurance contest requiring seven games to win, the Taupiri Sevens switched to the Hong Kong format in 1990. Not bound to tradition, Taupiri has introduced several time saving features such as requiring all kicks at goal to be drop kicks.

Auckland Marist, four-time champions, have shown by far the best form at Taupiri to date.

Dominated to-date by northern North Island teams, Taupiri is working hard at getting the best teams of both New Zealand islands as well as top teams from around the world.

Despite the relative youth of their tournament, they are succeeding: in 1989 Hyatt Fiji, with several Fijian national players, won the championship; in 1990 the American invitational side Atlantis made it to the Cup semifinals, and the first South Island team, Linwood (Christchurch) were the Bowl champions.

The Taupiri Sevens is held on the last Sunday of February, one week before the national provincial sevens, the trial for the selection of the All-Black Sevens' team.

Because it will probably emerge as the premier club sevens' tournament of the Southern Hemisphere, the Taupiri Sevens will be described in more detail in another chapter.

New tournament have continued to spring up throughout the 1980s, inspired by the growth of sevens in general and the success of the Taupiri Sevens in particular: club sevens in New Zealand appears headed for a new era.

The first Inter-Provincial Seven-a-Side Rugby Tournament was held in 1975; the winner was Marlborough.

From 1977 until 1981 the Provincial champions represented New Zealand at the Hong Kong Sevens. In fact, in 1978 the tournament date was moved from October to March, thus providing a timely path from New Zealand to Hong Kong.

In 1983, the first year that New Zealand competed as a national team in Hong Kong, the format of the provincial championships was changed from eight teams to four regions of preliminary rounds, with eight teams competing in the finals. Since that time, this tournament has been the selection vehicle for the New Zealand team to compete in the Hong Kong Sevens.

In 1987 the tournament format changed again; currently the tournament takes place over two days, with a modified version of the Hong Kong format: 28 teams, with Cup, Plate, Bowl and Shield champions.

The provincial championship has not only provided the platform for New Zealand's success at the Hong Kong and Sydney Sevens, but also provided the opportunity for many a future 15s' All-Black to first "show his stuff."