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.

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, and clinching the 2007–08 series with one tournament remaining after winning the Plate Final of the London leg. 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 The series' tournaments, which were identical to those in 2006–2007, span the globe:

+ 2007-08 ItineraryLegVenueDateWinner Dubai Dubai Exiles Rugby Ground Nov 30–Dec 1, 2007 South Africa Outeniqua Park, George December 7–8 2007 New Zealand Westpac Stadium, Wellington February 1–2 2008 United States Petco Park, San Diego February 9–10 2008 Hong Kong Hong Kong Stadium March 28–30 2008 Australia Adelaide Oval, Adelaide April 5–6 2008 London Twickenham May 24–25 2008 Scotland Murrayfield, Edinburgh May 31–June 1, 2008

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.

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 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. 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 (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: 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 The points awarded to teams at each event, as well as the overall season totals, are shown in the table below. Gold indicates the event champions. Silver indicates the event runner-ups. 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.

+ 2007–08 IRB Sevens – Series IXPos. DubaiGeorgeWellingtonSan DiegoHong KongAdelaideLondonEdinburghPointstotal    1 20 20 20 20 30 16 8 20 154 2 12 12 8 16 24 20 6 8 106 3 6 4 16 12 18 12 20 12 100 4 16 16 4 8 18 12 16 4 94 5 12 0 2 4 8 0 12 16 54 6 8 12 0 6 3 2 12 0 43 7 4 8 0 12 8 6 0 0 38 8 2 0 12 0 8 4 2 2 30 9 0 2 6 2 8 0 0 12 30 10 4 4 4 4 0 0 4 6 26 11 – – 12 – 2 8 – – 22 12 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 4 8 13 0 6 0 0 0 0 – – 6 14 – – – – 0 – 4 0 4 – – 0 – – 4 – – 4 16 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 17 – – – – 1 – 0 0 1 N/A – – – – – – 0 0 0 – – – – – – 0 0 0 – – – – 0 0 – – 0 0 0 – – 0 – – – 0 0 0 – – 0 – – – 0 – – – – 0 – – – 0 – – – – 0 – – – 0 – – – – 0 – – – 0 – – – – 0 – – – 0 – – – – 0 – – – 0 – – – 0 – – – – 0 – – – 0 – – – – 0 – – – 0 – – – – 0 – – 0 – – – – – 0 – 0 – – – – – – 0 Arabian Gulf 0 – – – – – – – 0 Source: (archived) {| class="wikitable" style="font-size:92%;" |- !colspan=2| Legend |- |bgcolor=#FFD700|Gold |Event Champions |- |bgcolor=#C0C0C0|Silver |Event Runner-ups |- |colspan=2 style="border-left:3px solid #7cf;"|Light blue line on the left indicates a core team eligible to participate in all events of the series.

Player scoring

Individual points

Individual points Updated:2008-04-04Pos.PlayerCountryPoints 1 Tomasi Cama 188 2 Fabian Juries 150 3 Neumi Nanuku 146 4 Renfred Dazel 137 5 Lote Raikabula 136 6 Steven Yates 130 7= Mikaele Pesamino 127 7= Emosi Vucago 127 9 Philip Mack 126 10 Ben Gollings 124

Individual tries

Individual tries Updated:2012-02-01Pos.PlayerCountryPoints 1 Fabian Juries 41 2 Alafoti Fa'osiliva 35 3 Mikaele Pesamino 31 4 Tomasi Cama 29 5= Steven Yates 27 5= Victor Vito 27 5= Santiago Gomez Cora 27 8= Chris Wyles 26 8= DJ Forbes 26 10 Emosi Vucago 25

Tournaments

Dubai

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 31-21 Plate 15-14 Bowl 31 – 0 Shield 22 – 19

South Africa

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 34 – 7 Plate 15 – 14 Bowl 21 – 19 Shield 31 – 14

New Zealand

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 22 – 7 Plate 19 – 12 Bowl 12 – 7 Shield 22 – 17

United States

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 27 – 12 Plate 26 – 21 Bowl 21 – 19 Shield 24 – 12

Hong Kong

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsQuarter FinalistsCup 26 – 12 Plate 17 – 14 Bowl 19 – 14

Australia

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 15 – 7 Plate 14 – 12 Bowl 26 – 21 Shield 12 – 7

London

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 19 – 14 Plate 19 – 12 Bowl 19 – 12 Shield 10 – 7

Scotland

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 24 – 14 Plate 14 – 5 Bowl 24 – 14 Shield 10 – 5

Notes and references

External links London Sevens Profile on UR7s.com