Rugby 7’s – Fan Friendly

Seven’s comes to Vancouver and from what we were told, they contemplated bringing this to the area several years back but due to the previous turf, which was harder to play on.

When you first heard of this several were unsure of what this was going to be like, not only for the matches, but also how would Canada and in particular fans in the lower mainland take to this?

Well think what you want, the sport is aggressive, fast, entertaining and most of all fan friendly and given the attire (costumes) worn by the fans, it’s like having a party with 66,000 for the weekend over both days.

Rugby sevens is different from the event last year at Swangard Stadium where that was fifteen a-sides with this only having seven-a-side at one time.

This is a Sevens or VII’s where teams are made up of seven players as an alternative of the customary 15 per side as well as playing much shorter matches.

The World Rugby over see’s Rugby sevens and is responsible for rugby union worldwide and this part of the sport was originally started in Melrose where the Melrose Sevens tournament is still played annually.

The game is extremely popular at all levels in various areas that involve amateur and club tournaments and uses most of the same rules.

A regular (normal) rugby union match lasts at least 80 minutes, while a sevens match is two halves of seven minutes each with a half-time break of one-minute.

The final of a competition can be played over two halves of ten minutes each, with a half-time break of two minutes.

Sevens is played in the summer months as well as one of the most well dispersed forms of rugby.

It is extremely popular in parts of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, and especially in the South Pacific, but not so much in Canada.

Rugby sevens is played at some multi-sport events including the Commonwealth Games (five times).

The first being in Kuala Lumpur (1998), Malaysia (2002), Manchester (2006), Melbourne (2010), Delhi, India and Glasgow Scotland in 2014.

Up until 2014 the Gold medal was won by New Zealand, but won by South Africa in 2014.

After some time and probably not without much discussion Rugby sevens is now officially recognized as an Olympic sport.

The executive board of the IOC (International Olympic Committee) voted to include Rugby and the sport will make its official debut at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Rugby is growing in popularity in BC and regardless of who you ask, they each a different view, but in reality BC Rugby deserves much credit.

Canada is currently ranked 18^th in World Rankings with no surprise to many that New Zewland All-Blacks are ranked first over, followed by Australia.