Rugby League World Sevens

The Rugby League World Sevens, usually referred to as the World Sevens and sometimes as the World Cup Sevens, was a pre-season rugby league sevens tournament made up over the years primarily of New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL), Australian Rugby League (ARL) and mostly recently National Rugby League (NRL) teams, along with teams representing NSW Country and nations including Tonga, France, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Russia, Fiji, the USA and England.

When the National Rugby League was formed in Australasia in 1998 the World Sevens competition was dropped, but it returned in 2003 when Parramatta successfully defended their title from the last time in 1997.

Format and rules

The World Sevens format saw entrants divided into eight pools. The top team in each pool progressed into the quarter finals.

Until 2004, second placed teams from each pool would play each other, as would third placed teams. In 2004, when the competition was known as the ''Cougar Bourbon World Sevens'', this format changed, when only the top placed teams played for the major prize.

Each match played up to and including the semi-finals had two 7-minute halves with extra time played in the event of tie at the end normal time. The final is longer with two 10-minute halves. In 2004, the tackle limit was reduced from 6 to 4.

History

The World Sevens were held at Parramatta Stadium from 1988 to 1991 and Sydney Football Stadium from 1992 to 2004, with the 1995 tournament's opening day being held at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, and the 1996 tournament's opening day taking place at Parramatta Stadium.

Wigan played in the rain-soaked 1992 World Sevens as they opted to fulfil a promise made by their club's chairman, Maurice Lindsay, to appear despite having commitments in the Challenge Cup. After a win in extra time against Cronulla in the opening match hinted at a strong challenge for the title, a poor performance and loss to the Gold Coast Seagulls saw Wigan's challenge seeming likely to fail. The group stage ended with each team in Wigan's group having won one game, but by virtue of "most tries scored" they proceeded to the quarter-finals, despite their chances being largely written off. John Monie, the Wigan coach, told his team, "We've copped a bit of a bagging in the press today saying we're a typical Pommy side and can't tackle ... and the other thing was that they say 'Oh, Penrith's got the easy draw again because they're playing Wigan'". In the event, Wigan breezed past Penrith 22–8 in the quarter-final and a Denis Betts try in extra time won the semi-final against Manly. Scorer of six tries before the game, Martin Offiah, the Man of the Series, scored four more in the final played against the Brisbane Broncos (the former club of Wigan's new recruit for 1992, Gene Miles), a game Wigan won 18–6.

1993 saw Wigan not defending their title. Eastern Suburbs defeated Manly Warringah in the final. The Sea Eagles would go on to win both the 1994 and 1995 World Sevens defeating St George and Fiji respectively. Manly's wins actually could have been potentially embarrassing for the tournaments organisers. During these two years the Sevens major sponsor was Coca-Cola who put up the A$100,000 winners purse. At the time of their wins, Manly Warringah's major sponsor was Coke's major rival Pepsi.

In 1995, Canada became the first side in World Sevens not to score a point throughout the tournament. The Canadians lost to the Newcastle Knights 52–0 and New Zealand 56–0 in the group stage and to Western Suburbs 48–0 in the plate quarter-finals.

Nathan Hindmarsh was deemed Player of the Series as Parramatta stormed to victory in the 2003 competition. Parramatta beat Canberra in their quarter-final, followed by South Sydney in the semi-final. The final pitted England against a Parramatta side that flew to the lead, scoring five tries before half-time to England's one by Keith Senior. The match finished 42–18. The Plate final was won by the Bulldogs who beat Fiji.

In 2004, the Wests Tigers took the title, winning 18–7 in the final and ending Parramatta's campaign for a third consecutive title. The Wests Tigers' first title as a merged entity gained them A$100,000 in prize money.

2004: tournament ceases

The lead-up to the 2004 tournament was disrupted by setbacks for the World Sevens. Some NRL clubs withdrew their top players. Steve Folkes, the Bulldogs

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