Rupert Cox column: Ultimate Sevens is fresh, fast and full of potential

Ultimate Sevens: fast rugby, new laws and loads of fun, but where will it fit in the Sevens Rugby landscape? Commentator Rupert Cox takes a look.

THE ULTIMATE

Brand-spanking-new, ambitious and shiny, Ultimate Sevens lands in London this week for its first ever Grand Final at the GTech Stadium in Brentford. I’ll be back on the mic – I got hooked on Sevens in 2009 while working for Sky Sports, and have been round the world broadcasting on it ever since. At every level, Olympics to SVNS Series to invitational tournaments, Sevens brings excitement, speed, and so much talent, in a way quite different to Fifteens —and in a way that is very often underrated on the global stage.

So what of this glitzy new form of the game?

Ultimate boasts the world’s biggest gathering of star players outside the World Series and Olympics, with over a hundred elite athletes jetting in from across the globe to compete in Cardiff, Biarritz and London. Teams are made up of Olympic gold medallists, world champions and SVNS Series legends, alongside a handful of academy players (and the odd local ring-in to cover the inevitable injuries). Players were selected for each team via an NFL-style draft. There’s a sliding scale of wages in each team, with two marquee players in every franchise at the top of the payroll. Prize money is on offer to the champions, MVPs and coaches.

Bold and brash, Ultimate Sevens has introduced strategic innovations in the rules to make it stand out from other Sevens competitions. Three events, six men’s and women’s franchises, twelve games a night, knock out from the get go – all in four fast hours. Champions and MVPs are crowned at each round, and build towards an ‘Ultimate’ championship in London this Thursday night.

Boom.

The goal? To showcase the short form rugby sevens format in explosive style, appeal to the shorter concentration spans of the modern audience – and, the hope is, to create a version of Sevens that truly breaks into the mainstream.

COMPETITION

The draft system means it’s been brutally competitive from the start. Albion Athletic Men, who were knocked out in Cardiff in the opening round, a week later won all three games and took the Biarritz Final. Stephan Parez – one of two Olympic Gold medallists in the Albion team – was crowned Biarritz MVP.

New Zealand’s Jazmin Felix-Hotham (also an Olympic gold medallist, natch) led her Clan Taran side all the way to the women’s final in Biarritz, having also been knocked out in the opening round at Cardiff. They didn’t manage to win (owing to a Madi Levi hat-trick) but it was some turnaround, and it’s clear that Ultimate has a real potential for this kind of rollercoaster.

VIBE

The players are looked after by Sport & Innovation Director Tom Mitchell, a former England and GB captain and Olympic medallist, and he has placed them firmly at the centre of the tournament. The athletes are making the most of it. Speaking to some of them after Biarritz, they are clearly enjoying themselves. Steve Tomasin, playing for the Atlantic Novas franchise, told me: “It’s the most enjoyable experience I’ve ever had in Sevens”. To put this in context, Tomasin is the USA 7s captain, a double Olympian and 10-year veteran of the World Series.

The players, it seems, are thriving in the Ultimate format: the pressure of a World Series event has been removed, a new freedom has been allowed by the new rules, and they are feeling encouraged to make the most of and enjoy the touring experience. Don’t take my word for it – check out the players’ social media feeds. On their days off, rather than hanging out in ice baths and physio, they are sipping Aperol Spritzes in the sunshine. And the men’s and women’s teams are operating as a single entity, travelling together, eating, chatting and laughing together, and, when given the chance – celebrating together. The Albion Athletic women’s team – knocked out in the opening game in Biarritz – stood behind the podium and joined the celebrations as their male colleagues lifted the trophy. Good fun, great optics.

Even when confined to the team bus, the players are having fun. GB’s Finlay Lloyd-Gilmour celebrated his 26^th birthday in Biarritz on Saturday. “He had happy birthday sung to him in seven different languages on the team bus coming in. It was really cool and really brought the team together,” said Head Coach Crystal Kaua. No surprise both Pacific Current teams went all the way to the final.

LANDSCAPE

Ultimate Sevens is of course not the only private franchise Rugby Sevens show in town. There are other start-ups looking to fill the void that is an increasingly financially-pressured World Rugby SVNS Series.

India’s Rugby Premier League is already two seasons in after its launch in Mumbai, and introduced women’s teams at PRL #2 Hyderabad this year. The six franchises are funded by individual team owners, and the focus is on supercharging rugby participation and standards in India. It follows a model similar to cricket’s Indian Premier League (IPL), bringing together international stars and local Indian players in franchise-based teams.

President of Rugby India and league commissioner of the RPL is film star-turned sports administrator Rahul Bose. Having gathered an impressive collection of backers, including sporting franchise giant GMR Sports, Bose also secured broadcast deals with Indian TV networks Star Sports and Jio Hotstar. He passionately believes that rugby has a big future in India, and that RPL is the way to fast-track it: “We want our women at the Olympics in 2032 and the men in 2036. In twenty years, India should be sitting at the top table of rugby-playing countries.” A lofty ambition – but if you’ve met Mr Bose you’ll understand it’s difficult to doubt him.

Yet to get off the ground but still making noise is a more global franchise rugby sevens model loosely called World City 7s. Former England captain Will Carling is one of the big-hitters behind the concept, and has been seeking big investment from the private sector. WC7s is aiming to be a more global league than Ultimate or RPL, in which eight franchises would play off during the northern hemisphere summer in international cities. “Eight festival-style tournaments during the high leisure season of July and August”, including five in Europe and three in the USA. They plan to recruit core Sevens athletes as well as so-called “cross-over athletes” from sports like AFL and NFL, to broaden the appeal. The ‘buy-in’ is said to be 20 million euros per franchise owner for 25% of the total commercial share. Watch this space for takers.

WATCH THIS SPACE

There is no doubt that Sevens is a uniquely thrilling and watchable form of rugby. It reaches an audience and attracts talent that longer form rugby cannot. It is not just those of us who have the pleasure of commentating the game that know so – investors interested in profit and growth have been sniffing around it for years, seeing and believing in the mass-market potential of the game. Ultimate has seen that belief through to this first fast-paced, star-packed tournament. See you in West London for the Grand Final!