Offering up a power-packed punch of rugby in a tight format that’s perfect for the Olympic Games, rugby sevens will undoubtedly be one of the biggest draws of Paris 2024 for British fans.
Being so similar to rugby union but with less time on the clock and forcing much more physicality, the men’s and women’s rugby sevens will see their third events at the Olympics this summer.
Before the teams run out at the biggest sporting event on the planet, here’s what you should know about how the rules and scoring work in rugby sevens.
History
Rugby sevens is a very old sport indeed. Its conception tracks back to 1883 in Scotland, when a fund-raising event at The Greenyards in Melrose staged the new format for the first time.
From there, sevens spread across Scotland, to England, and then outward via expatriates and the Commonwealth to India, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, and Ireland.
International rugby sevens began in 1973, eventually becoming the Rugby World Cup Sevens in 1993. By 2012, the Rugby Women’s Sevens Series was hosting at least five tournaments per season for 12 teams to battle in.
While rugby union (or rugby 15s) once had a place on the Olympic slate, rugby sevens became the preference when the sport sought to return to the Games.
Rugby 15s was played at the Summer Olympic Games in 1900, 1908, 1920, and 1924, but for Rio 2016, the IOC welcomed rugby sevens. Paris 2024 will be the third edition of Olympic rugby sevens.
Rules
The rules for rugby sevens are very much the same as traditional rugby union rules. The main exceptions come via the change in game times, the number of players on the field, and sometimes the points scored via kicks.
As such, the basic rules of the game are that players need to move the ball forward without passing it forward. Only backward passes are allowed, but players are allowed to kick the ball forward and chase it down.
To further enforce this, players need to be behind the ball carrier to be onside when it’s played. Being offside will result in a penalty and possibly a free kick for the opposition.
During the game, players can form a ruck to compete for a grounded ball after a tackle. They can also create a maul to help push a ball carrier forward or to stop their momentum from the defensive side.
Away from open play, the phases can start up again with scrums, lineouts, and kickoffs. Scrums occur when there’s a stoppage. They see the players bind together and scrum while attempting to kick the ball fed into the scrum backwards.
Lineouts take place when the ball goes off of the pitch down the sidelines and needs to be thrown back into play. To compete in the air, players will hoist one of their teammates up from the ground when the ball is thrown in.
To start a half of rugby and to commence play after a score, a team will take a kickoff. The kicking team will boot the ball deep into the opposing half to try to pin them back, chasing the ball down to begin their defence.
The aim of the game is to get the ball past the opposing goal line either by kicking it through the posts or running it in for a try.
Any fouls will be called by the referee, who’ll award penalties, send players to the sin bin, and expel players where necessary. Yellow cards result in two minutes in the sin bin. Red cards are outright dismissals for the game.
Scoring
Scoring in rugby sevens takes four forms, offering ways to score points on the ground and through the posts. To get points on the board in the sport, you can either:
-
Score a Try: Get five points when you ground the ball past the opponent’s goal line.
-
Kick a Penalty: If infringed, a team can opt to kick the ball through the posts and over the crossbar to get three points.
-
Kick a Conversion: After a try, a team can get two more points by drop-kicking the ball through the posts and over the crossbar.
-
Score a Drop Goal: From open play, anyone can kick a half-volley through the posts and over the crossbar to get three points.
Pitch Size & Timings
The rugby sevens pitch, despite fielding eight fewer players, is the same size as a rugby union or rugby 15s pitch at 70 metres by 100 metres.
To accommodate for the reduced player count, the game clock is mercifully reduced. In sevens, each match lasts just 14 minutes, split into two halves of seven minutes with a one or two-minute break between.
This limit on time and the more space allowed on the field makes the live betting quite appealing for rugby fans as the momentum can shift so suddenly.
Equipment
Everyone on a rugby sevens team at the Olympic Games will be required to wear a team uniform, a mouth guard, appropriate boots with studs, and some may also wear a head guard or padded undershirt.
Most Successful Countries at the Olympics
Rugby sevens is one of the newer Olympic sports, but one team has emerged as the best in both Games so far. Fiji won the 2016 men’s gold medal by smashing Team GB 43-7 and then topped New Zealand 27-12 in Tokyo.
In the women’s tournaments, Australia won the inaugural gold, beating New Zealand in the final, and then the Kiwis returned in the 2020 Games to top the podium with a 26-12 win over France.
At every edition of rugby sevens, Great Britain has made it to the bronze medal match or further.
However, Great Britain might not rank too well in the sport betting odds as the nation only has one silver medal in sevens to date.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Alamy*
