A new Sevens tournament is set to launch this September, which is being heralded as rugby’s version of the Hundred. The world’s leading Sevens players have been contracted to play in the Ultimate Sevens Championship. Events in Spain, Wales and France will be followed by a grand final at Brentford’s GTech Community Stadium in west London on 24th September.
How will it work?
The new tournament will feature six men’s and women’s teams with an initial player salary of £2m. The top 75 players on the world sevens circuit have already been recruited. They will represent one of the six squads representing six different global regions with the aim of attracting future individual franchise investment.
The fast-paced concept, blessed by World Rugby and all the major unions, has been designed to show sevens in a new light, via an abbreviated one-day format. Some of the interesting innovations include all games will be knockout and will last just 10 minutes. Each team will also be allowed to call one timeout per game instead of the traditional half-time break.
There will also be the opportunity to earn extra points by kicking conversions from wider out. This will add further jeopardy rather than just kicking from in front of the posts. Former GB Olympic men’s sevens captain Tom Mitchell believes the tweaked format will make the action even more attractive and marketable. He said “It’s a format which we think fits with the demand that exists today. That’s what’ll make this sing. Underpinning it is that these will be the best sevens players in the world. Our ability to get those players is key.”
The six new team identities are based on England, the Celtic nations, France, Oceania, North America and South America/Spain. Australia’s Henry Hutchison and England’s Abbie Brown are among those who have already committed. There will also be a player draft in July with Reebok in place as official kit partner.
“We don’t want to be a one-hit wonder”
Barney Pascall, managing director of Ultimate Sevens said “Ultimate Sevens is about elevating rugby sevens as a sport to give its world-class players a global stage to perform on, as well as providing fans with an experience that is fast, bold and culturally relevant. We’ve secured incredible host city locations, committed the sport’s top athletes and signed partners who genuinely understand what we’re building. We don’t want to be a one-hit wonder, we’re here to stay.”
For now, the top 15’s stars will not be targeted but Pascall believes big-money investors and box-office names will increasingly be tempted. He said “We’ve built this to allow for that to happen. It’s for sevens players but if some of the 15s guys turn around and say ‘I like the look of that’, that’s great. It’s good to be able to give people a choice.”
