2006–07 IRB Sevens World Series was the eighth of an annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for full national sides run by the International Rugby Board since 1999–2000.
New Zealand were the series champions, winning the final tournament in Edinburgh to take the lead on the standings. 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 did.
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 Tournaments in Australia and Scotland were added for 2006-07. The Australian event returned after a three season hiatus to effectively replace Singapore. The Scotland event effectively replaced the Paris Sevens.
Leg Venue Date Winner Dubai Dubai Exiles Rugby Ground December 1–2, 2006 South Africa Outeniqua Park, George December 8–9, 2006 New Zealand Westpac Stadium, Wellington February 2–3, 2007 United States Petco Park, San Diego February 10–11, 2007 Hong Kong Hong Kong Stadium March 30-April 1, 2007 Australia Adelaide Oval, Adelaide April 7–8, 2007 London Twickenham May 26–27, 2007 Scotland Murrayfield, Edinburgh June 2–3, 2007
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 was determined by the total points earned in all tournaments. The points schedules used for 2006–07 World Sevens Series were tweaked slightly from the previous season at the bottom end of each scale:
+ Points schedule: 16-team eventPointsPlaceStatus 20 1st Cup winner 16 2nd Cup runner-up 12 3rd(2-way share) Losing Cup semifinalists 8 5th Plate winner 6 6th Plate runner-up 4 7th(2-way share) Losing Plate semifinalists 2 9th Bowl winner + Points schedule: 24-team eventPointsPlaceStatus 30 1st Cup winner 24 2nd Cup runner-up 18 3rd(2-way share) Losing Cup semifinalists 8 5th(4-way share) Losing Cup quarterfinalists 4 9th Plate winner 3 10th Plate runner-up 2 11th(2-way share) Losing Plate semifinalists 1 17th Bowl winner
Final standings
The points awarded to the teams at each event, as well as their overall series totals, are shown in the table below.
The events
Dubai
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup31–12Plate26–7Bowl26–7Shield33–0
South Africa
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup24–19Plate26–7Bowl41–7Shield14–12
New Zealand
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup17–14Plate21–12Bowl12–5Shield26–24
United States
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup38–24Plate28–19Bowl22–17Shield26–5
Hong Kong
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsQuarter FinalistsCup27–22Plate26–19Bowl21–7
Australia
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup21–7Plate31–0Bowl26–14Shield43–17
London
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup29–7Plate14–5Bowl26–14Shield15–0
Scotland
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup34–5Plate31–7Bowl31–0Shield21–12
References
External links