Rugby Sevens - The Answer To Cross Code Rugby?

By Richie the Rhino (23/06/02)
July 11 2002

Rugby sevens is traditionally played at the end of the season, in a carnival atmosphere, where players have the ability to be creative and indulge in fast running rugby. The big sevens events such as Middlesex, Melrose and Hong Kong have a special place in the heart of rugby fans.

This year will be even better, as we have the Commonwealth Games 7s, with many big name players pencilled in to appear.

Some rugby playing nations actually play more sevens than 15's - the Fijians in particular spring to mind, having great success in the seven man game, but limited success in the 15 man version. The seven man game suits their strong running game better than 15 man rugby does.

IRB Series and Player development

Recently, we have seen the introduction of the IRB Sevens Series, designed to spread the rugby gospel into countries where it has no presence, hence rugby tournaments in unlikely places such as Kuala Lumpur. The England set up is using this series to blood young talent and help nurture new skills in up and coming players. The Tykes' Dan Scarbrough and Chris Hall have already been involved in the England set up for these events. A higher profile case is Henry Paul, been dumped from the Six Nations squad and sent off with the sevens team as a learning exercise.

However, there is a down side - the television coverage of the recent IRB sevens event from the Millennium Stadium showed a 70,000 capacity stadium with barely 700 people in it - once the tradition attached to sevens is removed, it appears that the rugby population has little appetite for the game - attendances for the Commonwealth games are promised to be much higher - lets hope this is the case.

Cross code similarities

In watching some of the recent sevens games, it is apparent that the game is played in a very similar way to RL. Sides commit very few players to rucks, preferring to fan out across the pitch and cover space, so ball is recycled very quickly, almost in an RL way. Secondly, teams tend to retain possession and probe for gaps - the Rhinos have been playing a bit like this at times this year (with varying degrees of success). Another important point is the emphasis on the first up tackle, if this is missed in Sevens, a try almost always results. With the emphasis on breaking the gain-line in first phase possession in the 15 man game, it is easy to see why the England set up are using Sevens to develop skills. Jonathan Davies has recently said that the first up tackle is fundamental to RL, as if it is missed, the lack of cover from having only 13, as opposed to 15, men on the pitch, inevitably leads to a try. Finally, the scrum has much less influence on sevens than in 15 man rugby.

It is interesting to note who the coach of the England Sevens team is - RL legend Joe Lydon - surely no coincidence here?

A vision for the future?

Which brings us to the point - RU sevens is a game that could be played successfully by an RL team. Therefore, can RU sevens not be an avenue for cross code competition? Leeds Rhino's Marcus St Hilaire has made it into the Commonwealth Games squad ahead of regular England 7's squad members like Jamie Noon & Micheal Stephenson. Bradford Bulls are to play in the Middlesex Sevens this year, and have been drawn against Tykes in the first round. It will be interesting to see how the two teams compare.

Both RU and RL fans and players, hate the thought of a merged code, and rightly so - perhaps it is only the moneymen like the idea. However, cross code competition would surely be of massive interest to fans of both codes. This leads to a suggestion - an annual sevens tournament, involving the top 8 RU and RL teams. The rules could be straight RU sevens, or a slight modification upon those (e.g. uncontested scrums, no lines outs, but keep rucking and mauling). Such an event could be a big money spinner, and could bring the codes two sets of fans closer together, reducing the apparent animosity between the two codes. It would certainly generate more interest than the IRB series. With the similarities between RU Sevens and 13 man RL, the playing field will be a fairly level one.

This is a pipedream only, and when we are trying to reduce playing demands on top stars, it may never happen. It would be interesting to see cross code competition of some kind, without sacrificing either the 13 or 15 man games, which nobody wants.