2006–07 IRB Sevens
Series VIII
Hosts
Nations32
Final positions
Champions New Zealand
Runners-up Fiji
Third Samoa

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
DubaiDubai Exiles Rugby GroundDecember 1–2, 2006 South Africa
South AfricaOuteniqua Park, GeorgeDecember 8–9, 2006 New Zealand
New ZealandWestpac Stadium, WellingtonFebruary 2–3, 2007 Samoa
United StatesPetco Park, San DiegoFebruary 10–11, 2007 Fiji
Hong KongHong Kong StadiumMarch 30-April 1, 2007 Samoa
AustraliaAdelaide Oval, AdelaideApril 7–8, 2007 Fiji
LondonTwickenhamMay 26–27, 2007 New Zealand
ScotlandMurrayfield, EdinburghJune 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 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 event
Points Place Status
201stCup winner
162ndCup runner-up
12 3rd
(2-way share)		 Losing Cup semifinalists
85thPlate winner
66thPlate runner-up
4 7th
(2-way share)		 Losing Plate semifinalists
29thBowl winner
Points schedule: 24-team event
Points Place Status
301stCup winner
242ndCup runner-up
18 3rd
(2-way share)		 Losing Cup semifinalists
8 5th
(4-way share)		 Losing Cup quarterfinalists
49thPlate winner
310thPlate runner-up
2 11th
(2-way share)		 Losing Plate semifinalists
117thBowl 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.

2006–07 IRB Sevens – Series VIII
 
Pos.
Event 
Team
Dubai
George
Well­ing­ton
San Diego
Hong Kong
Adel­aide
Lon­don
Edin­burgh		 Points
total
   
1 New Zealand 1620121218122020130
2 Fiji 121216202420168128
3 Samoa 84201630161216126
4 South Africa 20161281868492
5 England 121284842252
6 Wales 08––42121238
7 Australia 4204886030
8 France 64612000028
9 Scotland 0006844426
10 Argentina 20203041223
11 Kenya 00400120622
12 Tonga ––0280––10
13 Canada 404000008
14 Tunisia 06––0–––6
 15* Portugal 000020002
 15* United States ––002–––2
17 Russia ––––1–001

Sources: rugby7.com (archived), irb.com (archived), world.rugby (archived)

Notes:

   Light blue line on the left indicates a core team eligible to participate in all events of the series.
  1. Points for the event winners are indicated in bold. A zero (0) is recorded in the event column where a team played 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.
  2. Teams that share a position in the standings (on the same total series points) are marked with an asterisk (*) beside their position.

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

United States

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  Russia  Canada
 Italy

References

    • Official tournament site[usurped]
    • "2006-07 Season Overview". irb.com. Archived from the original on 23 October 2010. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
    • "2006-07 Season Player Points". irb.com. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.