The 2010–11 IRB Sevens World Series was the 12th annual IRB Sevens World Series of rugby union sevens tournaments for full national sides run by the International Rugby Board since 1999–2000.
Sevens is traditionally played in a two-day tournament format. However, the most famous event, the Hong Kong Sevens, was played over three days, largely because it involved 24 teams instead of the normal 16.
Itinerary The IRB announced dates for the 2010–11 events on 1 June 2010, only two days after the final event of the 2009–10 series, the Edinburgh Sevens. The stops remained unchanged from recent years; the only scheduling change for 2010–11 was that the Adelaide event, which moved from its traditional slot of one week after Hong Kong to one week before in 2010, returned to its prior slot for 2011.
This was the last season for the South Africa leg in George and the Australia leg in Adelaide. On 13 April 2011, both countries' national unions announced that their respective legs of the series would move to new sites for 2011–12. The South Africa Sevens will move to Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth. The Australia leg will move to Skilled Park in the Gold Coast; it was initially known as the "International Rugby Sevens Gold Coast", but later rebranded simply as the "Gold Coast Sevens".
+ 2010–11 Itinerary Leg Venue Date Winner Dubai The Sevens 3–4 December 2010 South Africa Outeniqua Park, George 10–11 December 2010 New Zealand Westpac Stadium, Wellington 4–5 February 2011 United States Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas 12–13 February 2011 Hong Kong Hong Kong Stadium 25–27 March 2011 Australia Adelaide Oval, Adelaide 2–3 April 2011 London Twickenham 21–22 May 2011 Edinburgh Murrayfield, Edinburgh 28–29 May 2011
Core teams Before each season, the IRB announces the 12 "core teams" that received guaranteed berths in each event in that season's series. The core teams for 2010–11 were:
The core teams were unchanged from 2009 to 2010.
Points schedule The season championship was determined by points earned in each tournament. The points allocations for all events were identical to those in the 2009–10 series, reflecting changes that the IRB made starting with that season:
16-team events (all except for Hong Kong) Cup winner (1st place): 24 points Cup runner-up: 20 points Losing Cup semifinalists: 16 points Plate winner (5th place): 12 points Plate runner-up: 8 points Losing Plate semifinalists: 6 points Bowl winner (9th place): 4 points
24-team event (Hong Kong) Cup winner: 30 points Cup runner-up: 25 points Losing Cup semifinalists: 20 points Plate winner (5th place): 16 points Plate runner-up: 10 points Losing Plate semifinalists: 8 points Bowl winner (9th place): 5 points
Tournament structure In all tournaments except Hong Kong, 16 teams participated. Due to its place as the sport's most prestigious annual event, the Hong Kong tournament had 24 teams. In each 16-team tournament, the teams were divided into pools of four teams, who played a round-robin within the pool. Points were 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 was the head-to-head result between the tied teams, followed by difference in points scored during the tournament.
Four trophies were awarded in each tournament. In descending order of prestige, they were the Cup, whose winner was the overall tournament champion, Plate, Bowl and Shield. The Shield was contested in Hong Kong for the first time in 2010. Each trophy was awarded at the end of a knockout tournament.
In a 16-team tournament, the top two teams in each pool advanced to the Cup competition. The four quarterfinal losers dropped into the bracket for the Plate. The Bowl was contested by the third- and fourth-place finishers in each pool, with the losers in the Bowl quarterfinals dropping into the bracket for the Shield.
The Hong Kong Sevens adopted a new structure effective with its 2010 edition. As in previous years, the 24 teams were divided into six pools of four teams each, with the competition points system and tiebreakers identical to those for a 16-team event. Also as in the past, the six pool winners and the two top second-place finishers advanced to the Cup competition. The Plate competition was contested by the losing quarterfinalists from the Cup, as in all other events in the series. The Bowl was contested by the four remaining second-place finishers and the top four third-place finishers. The Shield was contested by the remaining eight entrants.
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.
+ 2010–11 IRB Sevens – Series IXPos. DubaiGeorgeWellingtonLas VegasHong KongAdelaideLondonEdinburghPointstotal 1 16 24 24 16 30 24 16 16 166 2 12 12 8 24 16 20 24 24 140 3 24 20 20 16 25 16 0 6 127 4 16 16 12 20 20 6 20 12 122 5 20 16 16 12 20 16 12 8 120 6 8 6 16 6 10 6 8 20 80 7 6 6 6 0 0 12 16 16 62 8 4 8 6 6 0 8 6 0 38 9 0 0 4 8 0 0 0 4 16 10 0 4 0 4 0 0 4 0 12 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 6 12 12 6 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 10 13 0 0 – – 8 – 0 0 8 14 0 0 – – 8 – 0 0 8 15 – – 0 0 5 – 0 0 5 {| 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 Pos. Player Country Points 1 Cecil Afrika 381 2 Tomasi Cama 299 3 Ben Gollings 278 4 Hamish Angus 240 5 Andrew Skeen 201 6 Emosi Vucago 195 7 Bernard Foley 123 8 Frank Halai 175 9 Dan Norton 164 10 Gonzalo Gutierrez Taboada 159
Individual tries Individual tries Pos. Player Country Tries 1 Cecil Afrika 40 2 Frank Halai 35 3 Dan Norton 32 4 Humphrey Kayange 31 5-tie Seremaia Burotu 29 5-tie Collins Injera 29 7 Toby Arnold 27 8-tie Bernard Foley 26 8-tie Declan O'Donnell 26
Tournaments
Dubai
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 29 – 21 Plate 19 – 12 Bowl 21 – 0 Shield 26 – 0
South Africa
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 22 – 19 Plate 10 – 5 Bowl 26 – 0 Shield 14 – 5
New Zealand
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 29 – 14 Plate 26 – 12 Bowl 19 – 0 Shield 19 – 12
United States
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 24 – 14 Plate 26 – 15 Bowl 19 – 14 Shield 19 – 12
Hong Kong
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsQuarter FinalistsCup 29 – 17 Plate 26 – 19 Bowl 35 – 12 Shield 17 – 12
Australia
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 28 – 20 Plate 14 – 7 Bowl 17 – 10 Shield 22 – 5
England
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 24 – 14 Plate 22 – 12 Bowl 21 – 19 Shield 22 – 7
Scotland
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 36 – 35 Plate 26 – 14 Bowl 21 – 14 Shield 17 – 12
References
External links IRB Sevens