From Hong Kong to Honiara: 10,000 x 7s

Programme cover from the first women's international sevens tournament

“What is a test match” has been a bane of contention for those with an interest in the statistical and historical side of women’s rugby for some years. World Rugby’s narrow and self-serving definition, which requires both teams to have been members when the game was played means that we cannot all agree on when the first game was (though most would students of the game, other than World Rugby, would agree that it was Netherlands v France in 1982).

When it comes to Sevens it is less controversial. The first women’s sevens match took place as part of the Hong Kong Sevens on 15^th March 1997.

And, by our calculations, the 10,000^th will be on Saturday, either at the Oceania 7s in Honiara or SVNS in Cape Town.

I say “by our calculations” because in truth “What is a sevens international” is even more complex and open to dispute than “What is a test match”. However, Scrumqueens has been maintaining a list of all internationals since we began and the number of games on that list goes into five figures this weekend.

The list includes only includes sevens internationals where both teams were (or appear to be) national selections made by a recognised national rugby union, but not including “A” or development teams, being advertised and played at a public venue.

However, we do exceptionally include the quasi-official New Zealand teams that played between 1997 and 2008, which were national selections in every way other than being fully sanctioned by the NZRU (whose support for women’s sevens was oddly unenthusiastic until the qualifiers for the first World Cup came along in 2008). As is often the way these teams have been given retrospective recognition by most authorities – most notably the IOC. We also include games played by some multi-national teams, most especially Great Britain, and French territories playing in regional competitions.

The result of all this is a heap of ifs and maybes about whether this game or that tournament counts, and if you gathered 10 rugby statisticians together they’d come up with a dozen different total and lists.

But whether some would say we passed 10,000 a few months ago or others would say we are a few months away from the landmark on our list we hit five figures this weekend. So its as good a time to celebrate as any.

The landmarks from the first 10,000 games

It all began at the Hong Kong Sevens in 1997. 12 teams were invited and it was New Zealand (playing as the “New Zealand Ducks”) who kicked things off against Japan at the Aberdeen Stadium at 9am local time – and we are lucky to have a programme from that original tournament preserved online.

The tournament was the initiative of the Hong Kong RFU, who had begun a women’s sevens league in 1992-3 the growth and success of which resulted in an exhibition game at the HK7s in 1995, and the agreement to host an international invitational tournament two years later.

The other ten teams in that first event, alongside Japan and New Zealand, were Netherlands, Australia, England, Canada, Fiji, Singapore, United States, Scotland, Arabian Gulf and – the hosts – Hong Kong. For four of these teams – Hong Kong, Singapore, Fiji and Arabian Gulf - it was their first ever taste of international rugby. The former three would go on to play test rugby as well, but despite playing 82 sevens internationals Arabian Gulf would never play a test match before being wound up in 2010.

In a manner to which we have become accustomed that first New Zealand team swept all before them, only conceding one try (to the hosts, Hong Kong, in the semi-final) before beating the United States 43-0 in the final. England and Hong Kong shared third, while Australia beat Canada for the Plate, and the Netherlands won the Bowl.

With 1998 being a (fifteens) World Cup year the women did not return to Hong Kong until 1999 – but by that time the Caribbean had put it toe in the sevens water with Trinidad and St Vincent playing a exhibition game in Port of Spain in December 1998.

Despite this encouraging start it is remarkable in retrospect to see that Hong Kong and the Caribbean remained the only venues where women’s international sevens was played until 2003 when the format arrived in Europe with the first European Championship in Lunel, France, from 24^th May. Ten teams took part – Switzerland, Czechia, Spain, Belgium, Norway, France, Portugal, Sweden, Croatia and Bulgaria – but no-one from the UK or Ireland. The first European Champions were Spain, beating France 21-12 in the final.

The following year – 2004 – was when the international sevens really started to take off around the world. to Tunisia and Malta brought sevens to Africa in March before the following month saw the launch of the South American Sevens in Barquisimeto where the winners were Brazil, narrow 15-12 winners against Venezuela in the final in a competition that also included Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Peru and Chile.

Then in May the Asian 7s finally broke away from the Hong Kong 7s (where it had sometimes been mixed in with the International invitational in a slightly confusing way) to stand on its own in Almaty, with Kazakhstan beating Singapore in front of a few home spectators.

By 2005 the European Championship had grown so large that it was split into what in effect were two divisions. NAWIRA (now Rugby America North) launch their first official championship (USA winning in Kingston, Jamaica - and then playing a beating a combined side from all the other teams in an exhibition), and in 2006 the first African Sevens took place in Kampala with Uganda beating Kenya 22-17 in the final.

The explosion of sevens continued. The European Championship split into three divisions in 2007. The same year also saw the first sub-regional tournament – the South East Asia 7s (won by Thailand) and the first Pacific islands tournament in Port Moresby, won by Fiji 31-5 against Samoa in the final.

2007 also saw sevens debut in a multi-sport games – that year’s South East Asia Games – before the format kicked into another gear with worldwide qualifying for the first World Cup starting in 2008.

That World Cup in 2009 changed the game – not just sevens, but all of rugby – because its success, with Australia beating New Zealand in a hugely exciting final, was enough for the IOC to give its blessing for sevens to appear at the 2016 Olympics.

It was a decision that opened access to funding for sevens teams worldwide. The Dutch were the first team to go professional in the hope of making the Games in Rio, and for a while they seem to steal a march on more traditional rugby nations reaching a peak when the briefly lead against England in the final of the “IRB Challenge” (a precursor of the World Series) at Twickenham in 2012. Unfortunately for the Dutch the big nations began to overhaul them in 2013 and they just missed out on Rio.

Even so the Netherlands did feature in the first game of the next big initiative – the World Series – which launched in November 2012 in Dubai, the Dutch losing 24-12 to Australia in the first game. New Zealand were the first winners of round of the World Series, beating South Africa in the final, and went on to win the series.

All this built towards the format’s debut on the biggest stage of all.  On 6^th August 2016 France and Spain returned rugby to the Olympics (and gave women’s rugby its debut), Camille Grassineau scored the first try after three minutes, Australia lifted gold two days later, and women’s sevens was firmly in the public consciousness.

And so the game continues to grow. The 2024 Olympic tournaments was the biggest, most successful, most high profile yet with record crowds for any women’s rugby competition. And – at the other end – new nations are still coming to the party, including Kiribati, who this weekend are due to be the 153^rd nation to debut in women’s international 7s.

153 nations, 27 years, 10,000 games. Where next for women’s sevens?

153 Nations:

1 Japan (1997); 1 New Zealand (1997); 3 Australia (1997); 3 England (1997); 5 Canada (1997); 5  Netherlands (1997); 7 Fiji (1997); 7 Hong Kong (1997); 9 Scotland (1997); 9 United States (1997); 11 Arabian Gulf (1997); 11 Singapore (1997); 13 Saint Vincent & the Grenadines (1998); 13 Trinidad & Tobago (1998); 15 China (1999); 15 Russia (1999); 15 Samoa (1999); 18 Kazakhstan (2000); 18 Thailand (2000); 18 Wales (2000); 21 Cayman Islands (2000); 21 Jamaica (2000); 23 Sweden (2001); 24 Kyrgyzstan (2003); 24 Sri Lanka (2003); 24 Uzbekistan (2003); 27 Belgium (2003); 27 Bulgaria (2003); 27 Croatia (2003); 27 Czechia (2003); 27 France (2003); 27 Norway (2003); 27 Portugal (2003); 27 Spain (2003); 27 Switzerland (2003); 36 Malta (2004); 36 Tunisia (2004); 38 Argentina (2004); 38 Brazil (2004); 38 Chile (2004); 38 Colombia (2004); 38 Paraguay (2004); 38 Peru (2004); 38 Uruguay (2004); 38 Venezuela (2004); 46 Burundi (2004); 46 Rwanda (2004); 48 Taiwan (2004); 49 Bosnia-Herzegovina (2004); 49 Italy (2004); 49 Lithuania (2004); 49 Poland (2004); 53 Austria (2004); 53 Hungary (2004); 55 Germany (2005); 55 Israel (2005); 57 Barbados (2005); 57 Guyana (2005); 57 Saint Lucia (2005); 60 West Indies (2005); 61 Guam (2006); 62 Andorra (2006); 62 Ireland (2006); 62 Luxembourg (2006); 62 Romania (2006); 66 Kenya (2006); 66 Uganda (2006); 66 Zambia (2006); 66 Zimbabwe (2006); 70 Cote d'Ivoire (2007); 71 Papua New Guinea (2007); 72 Finland (2007); 73 Denmark (2007); 73 Latvia (2007); 73 Moldova (2007); 73 Serbia (2007); 77 Cambodia (2007); 77 Laos (2007); 77 South Korea (2007); 80 Niue (2007); 81 South Africa (2008); 82 Georgia (2008); 82 Slovenia (2008); 84 Madagascar (2008); 84 Mayotte (2008); 84 Réunion (2008); 87 Botswana (2008); 88 Bermuda (2008); 89 India (2009); 89 Iran (2009); 89 Malaysia (2009); 92 Burkina Faso (2009); 92 Egypt (2009); 92 Ghana (2009); 92 Morocco (2009); 92 Nigeria (2009); 92 Togo (2009); 92 Ukraine (2009); 99 Bahamas (2009); 99 Mexico (2009); 101 Senegal (2010); 102 Philippines (2010); 103 Cook Islands (2010); 103 Tonga (2010); 105 Indonesia (2010); 106 Cameroon (2011); 107 New Caledonia (2011); 108 Tahiti (2011); 109 Guadeloupe (2011); 110 French Guiana (2012); 111 Slovakia (2012); 112 Solomon Islands (2012); 113 United Arab Emirates (2012); 114 Turkey (2013); 115 Curaçao (2013); 115 Turks & Caicos Islands (2013); 117 Ecuador (2013); 118 Costa Rica (2013); 118 El Salvador (2013); 118 Nicaragua (2013); 118 Panama (2013); 122 Guatemala (2014); 123 Namibia (2014); 124 Martinique (2014); 125 Montenegro (2015); 126 Nepal (2016); 127 Great Britain (2016); 128 Dominican Republic (2016); 129 Pakistan (2017); 130 Mauritius (2017); 131 Honduras (2017); 132 Lebanon (2018); 132 Qatar (2018); 132 Syria (2018); 135 Bolivia (2018); 136 Brunei (2018); 137 Nauru (2018); 138 Jordan (2019); 139 American Samoa (2019); 140 Bangladesh (2019); 141 Benin (2019); 142 Central American Select (2019); 143 Vanuatu (2019); 144 Iraq (2021); 145 Algeria (2021); 146 Lesotho (2022); 147 DR Congo (2022); 148 Estonia (2022); 149 Mongolia (2022); 150 Libya (2023); 151 Wallis & Futuna (2024); 152 Saudi Arabia (2024); 153 Kiribati (2024).

Played 500 games or more:

1 France (680); 2 Spain (637); 3 Australia (596); 4 Japan (592); 5 United States (559); 6 China (556); 7 Canada (549); 8 New Zealand (535); 9 Ireland (525); 10 Brazil (501); 11 England (500)

Most successful (highest win percentage):

1 New Zealand (94.58); 2 French Guiana (84.21); 3 Australia (78.86); 4 France (64.92); 5 Canada (64.85); 6 England (63.70); 7 Qatar (63.64); 8 Kazakhstan 63.48); 9 United States (63.42); 10 China (62.12)