The 2007–08 IRB Sevens World Series was the ninth of an annual IRB Sevens World Series of rugby sevens tournaments for full national sides run by the International Rugby Board since 1999–2000.
| 2007–08 IRB Sevens | |
|---|---|
| Series IX | |
| Hosts | |
| Date | 30 November 2007 – 1 June 2008 |
| Nations | 32 |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  New Zealand |
| Runners-up |  South Africa |
| Third |  Samoa |
← 2006–07 2008–09 → | |
The defending series champions, New Zealand, dominated this season's competition, winning the first five events, setting new records for consecutive tournament wins and consecutive match wins,[1] and clinching the 2007–08 series with one tournament remaining after winning the Plate Final of the London leg.[2] They ended with six wins out of the eight events.
Sevens is traditionally played in a two-day tournament format; however, the most famous event, the Hong Kong Sevens, is played over three days.
Tournaments edit
The series' tournaments, which were identical to those in 2006–2007, span the globe:
| Leg | Venue | Date | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai | Dubai Exiles Rugby Ground | Nov 30–Dec 1, 2007 | New Zealand |
| South Africa | Outeniqua Park, George | December 7–8 2007 | New Zealand |
| New Zealand | Westpac Stadium, Wellington | February 1–2 2008 | New Zealand |
| United States | Petco Park, San Diego | February 9–10 2008 | New Zealand |
| Hong Kong | Hong Kong Stadium | March 28–30 2008 | New Zealand |
| Australia | Adelaide Oval, Adelaide | April 5–6 2008 | South Africa |
| London | Twickenham | May 24–25 2008 | Samoa |
| Scotland | Murrayfield, Edinburgh | May 31–June 1, 2008 | New Zealand |
Tournament structure edit
In all tournaments except Hong Kong, 16 teams participate. Because of its place as the sports most prestigious annual event, the Hong Kong tournament as 24 teams. In each tournament, the teams are divided into pools of four teams, who play a round-robin within the pool. Points are awarded in each pool on a different schedule from most rugby tournaments—3 for a win, 2 for a draw, 1 for a loss. The first tiebreaker is the head-to-head result between the tied teams, followed by difference in points scored during the tournament.[4]
Four trophies are awarded in each tournament, except for Hong Kong. In descending order of prestige, they are the Cup, whose winner is the overall tournament champion, Plate, Bowl and Shield. In Hong Kong, the Shield is not awarded. Each trophy is awarded at the end of a knockout tournament.[5]
In a 16 team tournament, the top two teams in each pool advance to the Cup competition. The four quarterfinal losers drop into the bracket for the Plate. The Bowl is contested by the third-place finishers in each pool, while the Shield is contested by the last-place teams from each pool.[4] In Hong Kong, the six pool winners, plus the two highest-finishing second-place teams, advance to the Cup. The Plate participants are the eight highest-ranked teams remaining, while the lowest eight drop to the Bowl.[6]
Points schedule edit
The season championship is determined by points earned in each tournament. For most events, points are awarded on the following schedule:[5]
- Cup winner (1st place): 20 points
- Cup runner-up (2nd place): 16 points
- Losing Cup semifinalists (3rd & 4th place): 12 points
- Plate winner (5th place): 8 points
- Plate runner-up (6th place): 6 points
- Losing Plate semifinalists (7th & 8th place): 4 points
- Bowl winner (9th place): 2 points
Points are awarded on a different schedule for the Hong Kong Sevens:[5]
- Cup winner (1st place): 30 points
- Cup runner-up (2nd place): 24 points
- Losing Cup semifinalists (3rd & 4th place): 18 points
- Losing Cup quarterfinalists (5th, 6th, 7th & 8th place): 8 points
- Plate winner (9th place): 4 points
- Plate runner-up (10th place): 3 points
- Losing Plate semifinalists (11th & 12th place): 2 points
- Bowl winner (17th place): 1 point
Final standings edit
The points awarded to teams at each event, as well as the overall season totals, are shown in the table below. Points for the event winners are indicated in bold. A zero (0) is recorded in the event column where a team competed in a tournament but did not gain any points. A dash (–) is recorded in the event column if a team did not compete at a tournament.
| Pos. | Event Team |  Dubai | George | Wellington |  San Diego |  Hong Kong |  Adelaide |  London |  Edinburgh | Points total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Zealand | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 30 | 16 | 8 | 20 | 154 |
| 2 | South Africa | 12 | 12 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 20 | 6 | 8 | 106 |
| 3 | Samoa | 6 | 4 | 16 | 12 | 18 | 12 | 20 | 12 | 100 |
| 4 |  Fiji | 16 | 16 | 4 | 8 | 18 | 12 | 16 | 4 | 94 |
| 5 | England | 12 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 12 | 16 | 54 |
| 6 |  Argentina | 8 | 12 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 0 | 43 |
| 7 |  Kenya | 4 | 8 | 0 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| 8 | Australia | 2 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 30 |
| 9 |  Wales | 0 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 30 |
| 10 | Scotland | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 26 |
| 11 |  Tonga | – | – | 12 | – | 2 | 8 | – | – | 22 |
| 12 |  France | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
| 13 | United States | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 6 |
| 14 |  Portugal | – | – | – | – | 0 | – | 4 | 0 | 4 |
 Cook Islands | – | – | 0 | – | – | 4 | – | – | 4 | |
| 16 |  Canada | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 17 |  Russia | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| N/A |  Moldova | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 |
 Spain | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
 Japan | – | – | – | – | 0 | 0 | – | – | 0 | |
 Zimbabwe | 0 | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | 0 | |
 Tunisia | 0 | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | 0 | |
| Hong Kong | – | – | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | 0 | |
 China | – | – | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | 0 | |
 Chinese Taipei | – | – | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | 0 | |
 South Korea | – | – | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | 0 | |
 Sri Lanka | – | – | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | 0 | |
 West Indies | – | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | – | 0 | |
 Chile | – | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | – | 0 | |
 Mexico | – | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | – | 0 | |
 Papua New Guinea | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | 0 | |
 Uganda | – | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0 | |
| Arabian Gulf | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0 |
Source: world.rugby (archived)
Notes:
Light blue line on the left indicates a core team eligible to participate in all events of the series.
Player scoring edit
Individual points edit
| Individual points [8] Updated:2008-04-04 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | Player | Country | Points |
| 1 | Tomasi Cama | New Zealand | 188 |
| 2 | Fabian Juries | South Africa | 150 |
| 3 | Neumi Nanuku | Fiji | 146 |
| 4 | Renfred Dazel | South Africa | 137 |
| 5 | Lote Raikabula | New Zealand | 136 |
| 6 | Steven Yates | New Zealand | 130 |
| 7= | Mikaele Pesamino | Samoa | 127 |
| 7= | Emosi Vucago | Fiji | 127 |
| 9 | Philip Mack | Canada | 126 |
| 10 | Ben Gollings | England | 124 |
Individual tries edit
| Individual tries [9] Updated:2012-02-01 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | Player | Country | Points |
| 1 | Fabian Juries | South Africa | 41 |
| 2 | Alafoti Fa'osiliva | Samoa | 35 |
| 3 | Mikaele Pesamino | Samoa | 31 |
| 4 | Tomasi Cama | New Zealand | 29 |
| 5= | Steven Yates | New Zealand | 27 |
| 5= | Victor Vito | New Zealand | 27 |
| 5= | Santiago Gomez Cora | Argentina | 27 |
| 8= | Chris Wyles | United States | 26 |
| 8= | DJ Forbes | New Zealand | 26 |
| 10 | Emosi Vucago | Fiji | 25 |
Tournaments edit
Dubai edit
| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semi Finalists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cup | New Zealand | 31-21 | Fiji | South Africa England |
| Plate | Argentina | 15-14 | Samoa | Scotland Kenya |
| Bowl | Australia | 31 – 0 | Canada | France Wales |
| Shield | Zimbabwe | 22 – 19 | Tunisia | Arabian Gulf United States |
South Africa edit
| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semi Finalists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cup | New Zealand | 34 – 7 | Fiji | South Africa Argentina |
| Plate | Kenya | 15 – 14 | United States | Scotland Samoa |
| Bowl | Wales | 21 – 19 | England | Australia France |
| Shield | Canada | 31 – 14 | Zimbabwe | Uganda Tunisia |
New Zealand edit
| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semi Finalists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cup | New Zealand | 22 – 7 | Samoa | Australia Tonga |
| Plate | South Africa | 19 – 12 | Wales | Scotland Fiji |
| Bowl | England | 12 – 7 | Argentina | France Cook Islands |
| Shield | United States | 22 – 17 | Kenya | Canada Papua New Guinea |
United States edit
| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semi Finalists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cup | New Zealand | 27 – 12 | South Africa | Kenya Samoa |
| Plate | Fiji | 26 – 21 | Argentina | England Scotland |
| Bowl | Wales | 21 – 19 | United States | Canada France |
| Shield | Australia | 24 – 12 | Chile | Mexico West Indies |
Hong Kong edit
| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semi Finalists | Quarter Finalists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cup | New Zealand | 26 – 12 | South Africa | Samoa Fiji | Wales Australia Kenya England |
| Plate | France | 17 – 14 | Argentina | Tonga Canada | Scotland Portugal Tunisia United States |
| Bowl | Russia | 19 – 14 | Zimbabwe | Hong Kong South Korea | Chinese Taipei Japan China Sri Lanka |
Australia edit
| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semi Finalists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cup | South Africa | 15 – 7 | New Zealand | Fiji Samoa |
| Plate | Tonga | 14 – 12 | Kenya | Australia Cook Islands |
| Bowl | Argentina | 26 – 21 | United States | Scotland France |
| Shield | Wales | 12 – 7 | Canada | England Japan |
London edit
| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semi Finalists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cup | Samoa | 19 – 14 | Fiji | England Argentina |
| Plate | New Zealand | 19 – 12 | South Africa | Portugal Scotland |
| Bowl | Australia | 19 – 12 | Wales | Canada France |
| Shield | Spain | 10 – 7 | Kenya | Russia Moldova |
Scotland edit
| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semi Finalists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cup | New Zealand | 24 – 14 | England | Samoa Wales |
| Plate | South Africa | 14 – 5 | Scotland | Fiji France |
| Bowl | Australia | 24 – 14 | Canada | Spain Argentina |
| Shield | Portugal | 10 – 5 | Russia | Moldova Kenya |
Notes and references edit
- ^ "South Africa halt kiwi winning streak" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 2008-04-06. Archived from the original on 2008-04-10. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
- ^ "Rugby sevens: NZ lose, but still win world title". nzherald.co.nz. 2008-05-26. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
- ^ "IRB Sevens World Series set for another record breaking year". International Rugby Board. 2007-08-01. Archived from the original on 2007-10-24. Retrieved 2007-08-03.
- ^ a b "Rules: 16-Team Tournament". International Rugby Board. 2007. Archived from the original on 21 March 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2008.
- ^ a b c "Rules". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 5 April 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2008.
- ^ "Rules: 24-Team Tournament". International Rugby Board. 2007. Archived from the original on 21 March 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2008.
- ^ "Sevens series standings". Sevens.Rugby. 2008. Archived from the original on 8 December 2019.
- ^ "Season Player Points". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 9 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
- ^ "Season Player Tries". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 2008-04-09. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
External links edit
- London Sevens Profile on UR7s.com
- Official tournament site[usurped]
- "2007-08 Season Overview". irb.com. Archived from the original on 20 February 2009. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
- "2007-08 Season Player Points and Tries". irb.com. Archived from the original on 20 February 2009. Retrieved 12 December 2013.