Top Performing Countries At The Rugby 7s World Cup

The Rugby World Cup Sevens is a rugby competition. The Rugby World Cup Sevens is a different event from the Rugby World Cup. The Sevens World Cup as is popularly know is organized by the sport’s governing body, World Rugby. Twenty-four male and 12 female teams are featured in the event. The first Seven Word Cup was held in 1993 in Edinburg, Scotland, a country considered the birthplace of the rugby sevens. England emerged the winner and became the first ever titleholders of the competition. Since then the competition has been held after every four years. 

Rugby World Cup Sevens Records

New Zealand

New Zealand holds the record for the most Seven World Cup titles. The country has participated in all seven men's competitions and three women's competitions. During that time, the New Zealand team bagged 3 men's titles (2001, 2013, 2018) and 2 women's title (2013, 2018). New Zealand became the only country to defend the title when both the male and female teams successfully defended their titles in the 2018 series.

Other Teams

Fiji has won the men's title twice in 1997 and 2005 while England (1993 ) and Wales (2009) have each won the men's title only once. Australia has won the women's title once as well during the inaugural women's competition.

Olympic Consideration

In 2005, the rugby governing body submitted a request to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to include rugby as an Olympic sport but the request was rejected because the women’s competition was not developed enough to be part of the Olympics. The IRB introduced the Women's World Cup in 2009 to concur with the Men’s event with the aim of promoting the development of women's rugby across the globe. Australia won the inaugural tournament held in the United Arab Emirates while New Zealand won the subsequent 2013 and 2018 competitions in Moscow and San Francisco respectively. In 2009, the IOC voted to include the Rugby Sevens as an Olympic sport as from the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The IRB declared that the 2013 event in Russia would be the last because the Olympic Games would only accommodate 12 teams but member states rejected the proposal and chose to continue with the event.