Rugby: Cape Town set to host Sevens series as format continues to expand

Cape Town will host the South African leg of this year’s World Series Sevens tournament as the format continues to expand its footprint. The total number of events has increased from nine to ten, with Cape Town, Sydney, Vancouver, Singapore and Paris all slotted in as new venues for this season’s edition.

The most notable absentee from the hosts' list is Scotland. It was long-expected that the country would lose its rights to host a tournament and Scottish Rugby had already expressed its concern in May about the impact of this. In an interview with the BBC in May this year, Scottish Rugby director Dominic McKay expressed concerns that losing the hosting rights might force the country to go "part-time".

Still, the move to Vancouver, Singapore and the return to Paris is typical of the thinking behind the tournament. If the tournament’s footprint expands, so will its revenue streams. That much was evident when HSBC renewed its exclusive naming rights to the World Series (with the exception of Hong Kong and Dubai). The broadcast reach of the Seven Series is estimated to be around 330 million homes across the globe, which is not bad for the sponsor’s buck.

But it’s also not bad for increasing the participation footprint. Rugby in the United States is booming, and elsewhere in countries where the sport is still developing, participation grows by around 10% annually – and a large part of that has been down to the introduction to the sport through Sevens. Countries which host Sevens aren’t always the countries with the biggest participation rates, but by extending the footprint to the outposts, the game is truly going global.

China has 6,000 registered players and a total of 58,000 players take part in the sport, while Hong Kong has just over 13,000 registered players with over 21,000 playing the sport. The stats are similar for countries like Singapore, where over 9,000 players are registered and over 27,000 play, while United Arab Emirates has just over 3,000 registered players, with a touch over 7,500 playing the game.

It’s something that the IRB are taking note of. World Rugby chairman Bernard Lapasset said: “Rugby sevens is going from strength to strength ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and the men’s and women’s series have been at the heart of the global sevens success story with their winning brand of high-octane, competitive and broadcast-friendly action, global locations and festival atmosphere.”

Notably, the title sponsor, HSBC, will also be pouring money into the women’s game, and have assumed the title-sponsor rights for the women’s World Series, a first for the women’s game. As with the men’s game, the more money is poured into the sport, the more it can develop. During this year’s London leg of the World Sevens tournament the men and women’s tournaments were also played side-by-side, giving added exposure to the women’s game, the kind of thing the XV’s format can only dream of. The annual IRB report from 2014, noted that there are 1.76 million registered female players across the globe.

The notable increase in the popularity has prompted the chiefs of rugby XVs to try to rethink the way things are currently structured, according to Lapasset. While Sevens might indirectly lead to players taking up XV-man rugby, Lapasset is keen that the sport doesn’t rest on its laurels and continues to grow across both formats.

"We need to open up a new system for the 15-man game to bring the northern and southern hemisphere programmes closer together," he said.

"I opened up the debate at the executive committee meeting in Dublin earlier this year. At the moment one has the Six Nations, which is successful, and the Four Nations (southern hemisphere international competition), which is less so.

"We have to look at the possibility of getting a new model of competitions, to grow profitability and to make it as attractive as possible to broadcasters.

"What is the best format, the quality of the competitions, the safety of the players? It is great to create opportunities and to aid the development of rugby.

"The Rugby World Cup is the third-largest sports event in the world, after the Olympics and the football World Cup, which is huge for us. However, we must maintain our level." DM

World Rugby Men’s Sevens Series 2015-16 schedule

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  Round 1: Dubai – 3-4 December, 2015

  
  


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  Round 2: Cape Town – 12-13 December, 2015

  
  


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  Round 3: Wellington – 30-31 January, 2016

  
  


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  Round 4: Sydney – 6-7 February, 2016

  
  


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  Round 5: Las Vegas – 4-6 March, 2016

  
  


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  Round 6: Vancouver – 12-13 March, 2016

  
  


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  Round 7: Hong Kong – 8-10 April, 2016

  
  


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  Round 8: Singapore – 16-17 April, 2016

  
  


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  Round 9: Paris – 14-15 May, 2016

  
  


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  Round 10: London – 20-22 May, 2016

  
  

Photo: South Africa's Mark Richards (L) picks up the ball against New Zealand during their Sevens World Series rugby match in Dubai, December 2, 2011. South Africa beat New Zealand 21-5. REUTERS/Sonza Gabriel