# Australian Sevens

The Australia Sevens is an international rugby sevens tournament that was first played in 1986. Currently hosted as the Sydney Sevens, the event is part of the World Rugby Sevens Series. The tournament was held in Brisbane, in Adelaide, and on the Gold Coast in previous seasons.

## History

The NSW Rugby Union hosted an international sevens tournament at Concord Oval in Sydney from 1986 to 1988, as part of Australia's Bicentennial celebrations. The Australian Rugby Football Union, later the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) and now known as Rugby Australia, continued the event for a further year in 1989.
The 2000 Brisbane Sevens was the first Australian Sevens tournament in the World Sevens Series run by the International Rugby Board (IRB), now known as World Rugby. It was the 7th tournament of the series in the inaugural 1999-2000 season and was hosted at Lang Park. Fiji played Australia in the final, and won the match in the dying seconds, thanks to a brilliant try to Waisale Serevi. Brisbane's hosting rights for 2001 were withdrawn by the IRB because of the Australian Federal Government's sporting boycott of Fiji, imposed after the 2000 Fijian coup d'état. After sanctions were lifted later in 2001, the remaining two tournaments of Brisbane's four-year hosting agreement were played and won by Australia and England in 2002 and 2003 respectively. Australia was not awarded a World Sevens tournament for the next three years.
Adelaide secured the hosting rights for the 2006/07 season. The 2007 Adelaide Sevens took place in April of that year, replacing the Singapore Sevens in the calendar. The tournament was hosted at Adelaide Oval for five seasons, with the last edition of the Adelaide Sevens being held in 2011.
In April 2011, the ARU announced that the Australian leg of the Sevens World Series would be played at Skilled Park on the Gold Coast for at least the next four years. The tournament was scheduled for the early part of the 2011/12 season, which meant that two World Sevens events were played in Australia in 2011. The Gold Coast tournament was initially named the "International Rugby Sevens Gold Coast", but was later rebranded as the Gold Coast Sevens.
The Gold Coast attendances for the 2013 and 2014 events were lower than expected, and in March 2015 the ARU announced that Sydney would host the event for the next four years from the 2015–16 season.
With the closure and rebuilding of Sydney Football Stadium, both men's and women's events for the Sydney Sevens tournament were moved to Sydney Showground Stadium in 2019, and Western Sydney Stadium for 2020.

## Results
### Invitational tournament

| Year | Venue | Final | Final | Final | Placings | Placings | Placings | Placings |
| | Sydney | Winner | Score | Runner-up | Plate | Bowl | Shield | Ref |
| 1986 | Concord Oval | New Zealand | 32–0 | Australia | Argentina | Wales | — | [17] [18] |
| 1987 | Concord Oval | Australia | 22–10 | New Zealand | South Korea | Fiji | Western Samoa | |
| 1988 | Concord Oval | New Zealand | 22–12 | Scotland | Fiji | Australia | Spain | |
| 1989 | Concord Oval | New Zealand | 26–16 | Western Samoa | Australia | Fiji | — | [21] [22] |

### World Rugby Sevens Series

| Year | Venue | Final | Final | Final | Placings | Placings | Placings |
| | Brisbane | Winner | Score | Runner-up | Plate | Bowl | Shield |
| 2000 | Lang Park | Fiji | 24–21 | Australia | Argentina | Tonga | — |
| 2001 | Cancelled by IRB due to Australian Government sanctions against Fiji. | Cancelled by IRB due to Australian Government sanctions against Fiji. | Cancelled by IRB due to Australian Government sanctions against Fiji. | Cancelled by IRB due to Australian Government sanctions against Fiji. | Cancelled by IRB due to Australian Government sanctions against Fiji. | Cancelled by IRB due to Australian Government sanctions against Fiji. | Cancelled by IRB due to Australian Government sanctions against Fiji. |
| 2002 | Ballymore | Australia | 28–0 | New Zealand | Fiji | Cook Islands | Canada |
| 2003 | Ballymore | England | 28–14 | Fiji | Australia | Tonga | Cook Islands |
| | Adelaide | Winner | Score | Runner-up | Plate | Bowl | Shield |
| 2007 | Adelaide Oval | Fiji | 21–7 | Samoa | Australia | Wales | Canada |
| 2008 | Adelaide Oval | South Africa | 15–7 | New Zealand | Tonga | Argentina | Wales |
| 2009 | Adelaide Oval | South Africa | 26–7 | Kenya | England | Samoa | United States |
| 2010 | Adelaide Oval | Samoa | 38–10 | United States | New Zealand | England | Japan |
| 2011 | Adelaide Oval | New Zealand | 28–20 | South Africa | Wales | United States | Japan |
| | Gold Coast | Winner | Score | Runner-up | Plate | Bowl | Shield |
| 2011–12 | Robina Stadium | Fiji | 26–12 | New Zealand | Wales | Argentina | Papua New Guinea |
| 2012–13 | Robina Stadium | Fiji | 32–14 | New Zealand | Argentina | Spain | Scotland |
| 2013–14 | Robina Stadium | New Zealand | 40–19 | Australia | Fiji | France | United States |
| 2014–15 | Robina Stadium | Fiji | 31–24 | Samoa | New Zealand | France | Canada |
| | Sydney | Winner | Score | Runner-up | Third | Fourth | Fifth |
| 2016 | Sydney Football Stadium | New Zealand | 27–24 | Australia | Fiji | South Africa | Argentina |
| 2017 | Sydney Football Stadium | South Africa | 29–14 | England | New Zealand | Australia | Fiji |
| 2018 | Sydney Football Stadium | Australia | 29–0 | South Africa | Argentina | United States | New Zealand |
| 2019 | Sydney Showground | New Zealand | 21–5 | United States | England | Fiji | South Africa |
| 2020 | Bankwest Stadium | Fiji | 12–10 | South Africa | United States | England | New Zealand |
| World Series tournaments planned for Sydney were cancelled in 2021  and 2022, due to COVID-19. |
| 2023 | Sydney Football Stadium | New Zealand | 38–0 | South Africa | Fiji | France | Samoa |
| | Perth | Winner | Score | Runner-up | Third | Fourth | Fifth |
| 2024 | Perth Rectangular Stadium | Argentina | 31–5 | Australia | Ireland | Fiji | South Africa |

## Team records

Summary of results in the Australian leg of the World Rugby Sevens Series:
| Team | Winner | Runner-up | Third | Fourth |
| Fiji | 6 ('00, '07, '11, '12, '14, '20) | 1 ('03) | 1 ('23) | 2 ('19, '24) |
| New Zealand | 5 ('11, '13, '16, '19, '23) | 4 ('02, '08, '11, '12) | 1 ('17) | – |
| South Africa | 3 ('08, '09, '17) | 4 ('11, '18, '20, '23) | – | – |
| Australia | 2 ('02, '18) | 4 ('00, '13, '16, '24) | – | 1 ('17) |
| Samoa | 1 ('10) | 2 ('07, '14) | – | – |
| England | 1 ('03) | 1 ('17) | 1 ('19) | 1 ('20) |
| Argentina | 1 ('24) | – | 1 ('18) | – |
| United States | – | 2 ('10, '19) | 1 ('20) | 1 ('18) |
| Kenya | – | 1 ('09) | – | – |
| Ireland | – | – | 1 ('24) | – |
| France | – | – | – | 1 ('23) |
Updated to the 2024 tournament
Notes:
* 1 2 There were two Australian events played in 2011 (and none in 2015) due to the Gold Coast Sevens being hosted in November from the 2011–12 season onwards.