2007–08 IRB Sevens World Series

2007–08 IRB Sevens World Series
Host nations	United Arab Emirates  South Africa  New Zealand  United States  Hong Kong  Australia  England  Scotland
Date	30 November 2007 – 1 June 2008
Nations	32
Final positions
Champions	New Zealand
Runners-up	South Africa
Third	Samoa
Series details
← 2006–07 2008–09 →

The 2007–08 IRB Sevens World Series was the ninth of an annual series of rugby union sevens tournaments for full national sides run by the International Rugby Board since 1999–2000. The defending series champions, New Zealand, completely 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 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. 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

The series' tournaments, which were identical to those in 2006–2007, span the globe:

2007-08 Itinerary[3]
Leg	Venue	Date	Winner
Dubai	Dubai Exiles Rugby Ground	November 30–December 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, California	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

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

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

Statistics

Table

Final 2007-08 Standings[7]
Pos.	Country	Dubai	South Africa (George)	New Zealand (Wellington)	USA (San Diego)	Hong Kong	Australia (Adelaide)	England (London)	Scotland (Edinburgh)	Overall
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	98
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
8=	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=	Cook Islands	-	-	0	-	-	4	-	-	4
14=	Portugal	-	-	-	-	0	-	4	0	4
16	Canada	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2
17	Russia	-	-	-	-	1	-	0	0	1
18=	Moldova	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0	0
18=	Spain	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0	0
18=	Japan	-	-	-	-	0	0	-	-	0
18=	Zimbabwe	0	0	-	-	0	-	-	-	0
18=	Tunisia	0	0	-	-	0	-	-	-	0
18=	Hong Kong	-	-	-	-	0	-	-	-	0
18=	China	-	-	-	-	0	-	-	-	0
18=	Chinese Taipei	-	-	-	-	0	-	-	-	0
18=	South Korea	-	-	-	-	0	-	-	-	0
18=	Sri Lanka	-	-	-	-	0	-	-	-	0
18=	West Indies	-	-	-	0	-	-	-	-	0
18=	Chile	-	-	-	0	-	-	-	-	0
18=	Mexico	-	-	-	0	-	-	-	-	0
18=	Papua New Guinea	-	-	0	-	-	-	-	-	0
18=	Uganda	-	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	0
18=	Arabian Gulf	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0

Individual points

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

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

Dubai

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

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

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

USA

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

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

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

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

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

1. "South Africa halt kiwi winning streak" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 2008-04-06. Archived from the original on 10 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
2. "Rugby sevens: NZ lose, but still win world title". nzherald.co.nz. 2008-05-26. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
3. "IRB Sevens World Series set for another record breaking year". International Rugby Board. 2007-08-01. Retrieved 2007-08-03.
4. "Rules: 16-Team Tournament". International Rugby Board. 2007. Archived from the original on 21 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
5. "Rules". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 5 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
6. "Rules: 24-Team Tournament". International Rugby Board. 2007. Archived from the original on 21 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
7. "Overall Standings". International Rugby Board. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
8. "Season Player Points". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 9 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
9. "Season Player Tries". International Rugby Board. Retrieved 2012-02-01.

External links

• London Sevens Profile on UR7s.com
• Official tournament site
• "2007-08 Season Overview". irb.com. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
• "2007-08 Season Player Points and Tries". irb.com. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 12 December 2013.