Mitchell excited to see Ultimate Sevens launch new era for short form rugby

Following the end of the HSBC SVNS World Championship, one name more than any other has been on the lips of sevens rugby fans as to what to look forward to next: Ultimate Sevens.

This month, the tournament becomes a reality on 12th September 2026 as over 130 athletes across six teams in the men’s and women’s tournaments each come together in Cardiff.

For the competition’s Sport and Innovation Director, Tom Mitchell, the tournament is set to not only revolutionise sevens rugby, but the game at large.

“People in the world of sevens appreciate what an amazing sport it is and what a brilliant spectacle it is,” Mitchell said when he sat down for an exclusive interview with RugbyPass.

“Right the way back to Rio [2016 Olympics], which was a huge landmark moment for the sport.

“It’s shown this amazing ability to captivate fans and to be a sport that is not only incredibly captivating for people to understand it, but also a way of new people coming to rugby. It’s got that simplicity and easily understood excitement.”

Mitchell and the team behind Ultimate Sevens identified that there was a need for the shorter format to expand its calendar beyond the HSBC SVNS, and with an extensive off-season window, saw a chance to play with the formula the circuit had crafted.

This has included moving away from national sides and towards creating established clubs reflective of several continental regions where several of the world’s best sides originate, and now, will play together.

In a time where many sports are looking to create shorter formats of established games, Mitchell believes the established nature of sevens – having been around for nearly 150 years – puts it in a prime place to succeed.

“The landscape of sevens – as we’ve seen it – has had pockets of success, but it’s also faced its challenges,” Mitchell acknowledged.

“What we’ve tried to do with Ultimate Sevens is meet those challenges by picking out the best bits of the game, really.

“The best bits of the game being the jeopardy, the amazing athletes that play it, the hugely competitive nature of the short format sport, and actually double down on that short format.

The world we live in now, where other sports properties are trying to create their own short format and have had mixed successes with it, rugby has always had its short format.

“We’re really pleased that we’re creating essentially the first ever sevens clubs where you’ve got international stars rubbing shoulders alongside other international stars exclusively.

“We believe there’s an appetite for it. We think this will create a really engaging spectacle for people who love sevens.”

While the big names the competition has been able to pick up has drawn the headlines, the final piece in the origin puzzle started with a desire to create a competition complementing an established academy system

Originally established in 2013 by Tom Burwell, the Ultimate Sevens Rugby Academy (UR7s) has been a program that has gone from strength to strength in the UK and Europe, proving fertile ground for 14-to-18-year-old male and female players.

The program has undergone rapid expansion, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic, with an established foothold across Europe and starting to deliver a scholarship program in the United States.

With Ultimate Sevens linked up to UR7s, selected players will now be able to join squads as a 12th Academy player, getting the chance to play with the best in the world across the three weeks of action.

“At the heart of this [competition] is a sevens academy that’s been running here in the UK for a long time,” Mitchell explained.

“Ultimate Rugby Sevens Academy is now thriving, I think over a thousand boys and girls [are] in the academy. It was always framed as being an additional opportunity to play any sort of rugby. It was always big on how we develop people using rugby sevens as a vehicle.

“It always felt like it needed a cherry on the top of it, and an elite competition to match up. Ultimate Sevens as the championship is designed fully for elite players, but there is a thriving Academy business which is very much part of this.

“We’re looking to expand that as well as part of this project, taking the success that we’ve had with the Academy here in the UK, and taking it to other territories where there is an appetite for other forms of development in rugby.

“The 12th player [of each squad] will be an Academy player, who will either be from our UK Academy, or a young player from other territories coming in to take those spots, which we think is really cool.

“It’s not an opportunity that comes around very often for young players, and it’s a way that we can have a genuine, tangible connection between the grassroots pathway and the top tier.”

While the academy will hum underneath, Mitchell expects the inclusion of the best talent there will also add to the appeal of the tournament, setting the stage to transform the calendar of the short format of rugby.

With the action of each round only happening across one day, the short nature of the rounds will amplify the ‘moments’ of drama – upping the jeopardy of the games and supercharging the established format of the SVNS circuit.

Mitchell is hopeful this new coat of paint on sevens, and a successful inaugural season will bring opportunities to unlock how much potential the sport truly has.

“The fact that we’re going to have legitimate high-level competition is key for the same players that are playing in the World Series, the same players that are playing in Olympic Games,” Mitchell explained.

“That is fundamental to this being a success.

“We’ve been really grateful for cooperation from the unions and World Rugby in terms of helping create that landscape [and] create that picture for fans.

“Ultimate Sevens’ success is designed to be part of an overall elevation of rugby sevens. It’s designed to fit into a calendar where there is already quite a lot of empty space in terms of the international season.

“It is absolutely being built with the intention to try and boost an ecosystem and to lift that whole sport, which I think has potential to be unlocked still.

“Even after all these years of amazing Olympic Games and successes in various tournaments around the world, I think people who are close to it know that there is still more to come.

“The jeopardy [element] is really interesting.

“Modern sports properties thrive because people engage with them and people want to come and watch. To meet some of those challenges which are already laid out, we knew it needed to be a little bit different.

“That sense of creating that moment where, you know, it’s the last minute, last play… you need a score to win it, or you’re holding on for dear life because the other team’s going hammer and tong trying to win it.

“After that, you’re either through to the next one or you’re done. Creating that from match one means that there are no dead games in these events.

“There is something on every match. That is when sport is at its most exciting.

“That is when we see amazing moments in sport and that’s what we’re trying to do is create amazing moments for people to connect to.”

2026 ULTIMATE SEVENS FIXTURE LIST

Round 1:

• Saturday, 12th September 2026 – Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff, Wales

Round 2:

• Friday, 18th September 2026 – Parc des Sports Aguilera, Biarritz, France

Grand Final:

• Thursday, 24th September 2026 – Gtech Community Stadium, Brentford, London