2006–07 IRB Sevens World Series

2006–07 IRB Sevens World Series
Host nations	United Arab Emirates  South Africa  New Zealand  United States  Hong Kong  Australia  England  Scotland
Nations	32
Final positions
Champions	New Zealand
Runners-up	Fiji
Third	Samoa
Series details
← 2005–06 2007–08 →

2006–07 IRB Sevens World Series was the eighth of an annual series of rugby union sevens tournaments for full national sides run by the International Rugby Board since 1999–2000.

New Zealand won the 2006–07 series by winning the final tournament in Edinburgh. In that event, the then-defending series champions Fiji would have clinched the season crown by defeating Wales in the Cup quarterfinals. However, a Wales upset win opened the door for New Zealand to take the season crown by winning the Cup in Edinburgh, which they proceeded to do.

Sevens is a stripped-down version of rugby union, with seven players on each side rather than fifteen. Games are much shorter, seven or ten minutes each half, and tend to be very fast-paced, open affairs. Sevens is traditionally played in a two-day tournament format; however, the most famous event, the Hong Kong Sevens, is played over three days.

Calendar

The Australia and Scotland events are new for 2006-07. The Australia event effectively replaces Singapore, and the Scotland event effectively replaces the Paris Sevens.

Leg	Venue	Date	Winner
Dubai	Dubai Exiles Rugby Ground	December 1–2, 2006	South Africa
South Africa	Outeniqua Park, George	December 8–9, 2006	New Zealand
New Zealand	Westpac Stadium, Wellington	February 2–3, 2007	Samoa
United States	Petco Park, San Diego, California	February 10–11, 2007	Fiji
Hong Kong	Hong Kong Stadium	March 30-April 1, 2007	Samoa
Australia	Adelaide Oval, Adelaide	April 7–8, 2007	Fiji
London	Twickenham	May 26–27, 2007	New Zealand
Scotland	Murrayfield, Edinburgh	June 2–3, 2007	New Zealand

The season

In a normal event, 16 teams are entered; in Hong Kong, 24 teams enter. 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.

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.

In a normal event, 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.

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.

Points schedule

The season championship is determined by points earned in each tournament. For most events, points are awarded on the following schedule:

• Cup winner (1st place): 20 points
• Cup runner-up: 16 points
• Losing Cup semifinalists: 12 points
• Plate winner (5th place): 8 points
• Plate runner-up: 6 points
• Losing Plate semifinalists: 4 points
• Bowl winner (9th place): 2 points

Points are awarded on a different schedule for the Hong Kong Sevens:

• Cup winner: 30 points
• Cup runner-up: 24 points
• Losing Cup semifinalists: 18 points
• Losing Cup quarterfinalists: 8 points
• Plate winner (9th place): 4 points
• Plate runner-up: 3 points
• Losing Plate semifinalists: 2 points
• Bowl winner (17th place): 1 point

Final table

Pos.	Country									Overall
1	New Zealand	16	20	12	12	18	12	20	20	130
2	Fiji	12	12	16	20	24	20	16	8	128
3	Samoa	8	4	20	16	30	16	12	16	122
4	South Africa	20	16	12	8	18	6	8	4	92
5	England	12	12	8	4	8	4	2	2	52
6	Wales	0	8	—	—	4	2	12	12	38
7	Australia	4	2	0	4	8	8	6	0	32
8	France	6	4	6	12	0	—	0	0	28
9	Scotland	0	0	0	6	8	4	4	4	26
10	Argentina	2	0	2	0	3	—	4	12	23
11	Kenya	0	0	4	0	0	12	0	6	22
12	Tonga	—	—	0	2	8	0	—	—	10
13	Canada	4	0	4	0	0	—	0	0	8
14	Tunisia	0	6	—	—	0	—	—	—	6
15	Portugal	0	0	0	0	2	—	0	0	2
15	United States	—	—	0	0	2	—	—	—	2
17	Russia	—	—	—	—	1	—	0	0	1

The events

Dubai

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi Finalists
Cup	South Africa	31–12	New Zealand	Fiji  England
Plate	Samoa	26–7	France	Canada  Australia
Bowl	Argentina	26–7	Zimbabwe	Portugal  Tunisia
Shield	Wales	33–0	Arabian Gulf	Kenya  Scotland

South Africa

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi Finalists
Cup	New Zealand	24–19	South Africa	Fiji  England
Plate	Wales	26–7	Tunisia	France  Samoa
Bowl	Australia	41–7	Kenya	Argentina  Canada
Shield	Portugal	14–12	Zimbabwe	Scotland  Uganda

New Zealand

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi Finalists
Cup	Samoa	17–14	Fiji	New Zealand  South Africa
Plate	England	21–12	France	Canada  Kenya
Bowl	Argentina	12–5	Tonga	Australia  Cook Islands
Shield	Portugal	26–24	Scotland	Papua New Guinea  United States

USA

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi Finalists
Cup	Fiji	38–24	Samoa	France  New Zealand
Plate	South Africa	28–19	Scotland	Australia  England
Bowl	Tonga	22–17	Argentina	Canada  Kenya
Shield	United States	26–5	Portugal	West Indies  Chile

Hong Kong

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi Finalists	Quarter Finalists
Cup	Samoa	27–22	Fiji	New Zealand  South Africa	Australia  England  Scotland  Tonga
Plate	Wales	26–19	Argentina	Portugal  United States	Canada  Italy  Hong Kong  Tunisia
Bowl	Russia	21–7	France	Kenya  Japan	China  Chinese Taipei  South Korea  Sri Lanka

Australia

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi Finalists
Cup	Fiji	21–7	Samoa	Kenya  New Zealand
Plate	Australia	31–0	South Africa	England  Scotland
Bowl	Wales	26–14	Tonga	Argentina  France
Shield	Canada	43–17	Japan	Portugal  Hong Kong

London

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi Finalists
Cup	New Zealand	29–7	Fiji	Samoa  Wales
Plate	South Africa	14–5	Australia	Argentina  Scotland
Bowl	England	26–14	Portugal	France  Russia
Shield	Kenya	15–0	Italy	Canada  Georgia

Scotland

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi Finalists
Cup	New Zealand	34–5	Samoa	Argentina  Wales
Plate	Fiji	31–7	Kenya	South Africa  Scotland
Bowl	England	31–0	Portugal	Australia  Georgia
Shield	France	21–12	South Africa	Canada  Italy

External links

• Official tournament site
• "2006-07 Season Overview". irb.com. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
• "2006-07 Season Player Points". irb.com. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 12 December 2013.