New teams, rivals become allies: Ultimate Sevens season preview

The arrival of a new sevens competition in Cardiff is set to headline a big weekend of global rugby, with the Ultimate Sevens taking place at Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday, 12th September.

Six new teams across both the men’s and women’s competitions will converge on the famous venue, with rivals from the HSBC SVNS Series circuit set to combine into deliver a new style across a weekend of action.

With so much to unpack, RugbyPass breaks down everything you need to know ahead of what is set to be a thrilling opening weekend of action.

An inaugural competition in a rugby stronghold 

First impressions count, and in the case of Ultimate Sevens, there are few more historic rugby venues to launch an event than the iconic Cardiff Arms Park.

First opened as a cricket ground in the 1800s, rugby has been played at Cardiff Arms Park for nearly 142 years, the venue the home of United Rugby Championship side Cardiff.

This event marks the first time in 11 years sevens rugby has returned to the Welsh capital, with the venue having previously hosted the domestic Premiership Rugby 7s competition featuring sevens sides from several of Wales’ and England’s regional sides.

Before that, the venue was also the home of the Cardiff Sevens in the HSBC SVNS Circuit from 2001 to 2003, the venue seeing the likes of New Zealand and South Africa lifting titles, winning twice and once respectively.

It has the makings of an ideal home to launch a new style of short format rugby.

The new teams

One of the things that has drawn attention in the lead up to the event has not just been the locations and the key names jumping on board, but the teams themselves.

Focusing on specific regions where the best sevens nations have originated, the result is each team having a continental feel to them, something the competition’s Sport and Innovation Director Tom Mitchell aimed for.

“What we wanted to do was try and harness some of that natural, organic and existing fandom around the world in different pockets and give that geographical, regional relevancy to some of the teams,” Mitchell explained in an interview with RugbyPass.

“Each of the clubs has its own story and a bit of identity that’s been built out. It’s fascinating already seeing the players buy into that or find elements of that which they think are interesting. Fans will be doing the same.

“[Having] multicultural squads and getting the best out of them in a short space of time is fascinating. I know a lot of them are excited about that.

“In the same way as the World Series is, this is a true celebration of the cultural diversity and the amazing characters you’ve got in the Series as well.”

With the six sides – Pacific Current, Albion Athletic, Foudre Bleue, Sol Feroz, Clan Taran and Atlantic Novas – each having a men’s and women’s sides, the stage is set to see a new flavour to the sevens format.

Rivals become allies

It is not just the unique teams that are drawing attention, but the fact that the competition has been able to land so many big names of the SVNS Series circuit.

These stars will not only face off against each other again, but for the first time in many cases, play in the same colours.

Clan Taran will see the likes of Black Ferns star Jazmin Felix-Hotham link up with Trans-Tasman rivals Heidi Dennis and Mackenzie Davis, Pacific Current will see Kenyan star Kevin Wekesa, Fijian George Bose and Great Britain’s Finley Lloyd-Gilmour all take the field together, and the list goes on and on.

The format will not only mean a chance to break away from national jerseys, but give the players to shine on their own terms, as individual athletes.

With such a diverse range of athletes from over 17 countries represented, it only adds to the unique offering the competition will provide.

New format

Completing the changes, the six clubs are set to battle it out in just four hours of non-stop action per event, with a unique look to each tournament.

Across the first two events in Wales and France, the teams will compete for Championship points, culminating in a winner-takes-all final in the last week of action in London.

The opening two weeks will take the form of a knockout style, with three fixtures leading to a semi finals, with the three winning sides and best losing side progressing through, a final to determine the winner.

The final weekend will the stop two sides on the championship table automatically qualify for semi finals, with the remaining four sides going into a sudden death battle to join them.

The change in format also extends to the matches themselves: with matches last ten minutes and having no halftime break.

Coaches are allowed unlimited substitutions, with one 90-second timeout per team available in a match. Lastly, if the teams are tied at fulltime, the match goes to a golden point score to determine the winner.

Even the points scoring is different, with a score under the posts an automatic seven points. Score anywhere else, and players can choose their conversion spot, with the further away they go from the tryline offering more points up for grabs.

Future ramifications

With so much set to be played out, the tournament is also set to have academy players from the Ultimate Sevens Rugby Academy take part in each team, opening the door for new stars to get exposed to a high level of sevens action.

Such an opportunity opens up the Ultimate Sevens to become a viable pathway for players to the HSBC SVNS Series, and that is the tip of the iceberg of potential this competition can deliver.

With more offseason competitions outside of the circuit opening up across the world, this inaugural season of the Ultimate Sevens has the chance to stamp it’s place in the offseason calendar as an event rugby fans worldwide can enjoy.

Should it prove a huge success, the sky is the limit for this new tournament to flourish, both on it’s own terms and within the wider global rugby ecosystem.