The biggest wins from inaugural Ultimate Sevens season

The inaugural season of Ultimate Sevens is set to come to an end this Thursday at Brentford Community Stadium in London, with all six clubs and twelve teams set for a thrilling evening, with the competition being winner-takes-all.

The three weeks of action has shown a new side to the game of sevens, and with that, has led to many pundits and commentators looking at the potential future of the short format of the game, discussions that will continue long after the winner is crowned.

RugbyPass breaks down the key success stories from the Ultimate Sevens, and where it leaves the seven-player code after a thrilling inaugural season.

Rivals become allies

With clubs replacing countries, one of the biggest joys of the on-field action has been longstanding rivals of the SVNS Series coming together to play on the same sides.

The results have been joyful team combinations, reflected both off the park with the many great stories coming out of the Ultimate Sevens socials, and on the park through quality rugby.

From Blitzboks Selyn Davids combining with Team GB stars Will Homer and Tom Emery for Clan Taran to win in Cardiff, to Maddison Levi flourishing with a multitude of Fijian stars in Biarritz, it has offered up a unique opportunity to see these athletes express themselves free of national duty.

It is a concept that the Ultimate Sevens will no doubt lean into further in future, and one that makes the tournament stand out.

Changing the rulebook

Changing the influence of the whistle on the game can come with pros and cons, but the new approach taken with Ultimate Sevens has been reflected in new strategies emerging via the coaches of all sides.

While general play is unmistakably sevens rugby, the decision for a 10-minute match with no break, introducing timeouts, golden try scores to manage tiebreakers, and changing the scoring system resulted in unique approaches to winning, with broken play encouraged.

This proved especially the case in Biarritz, with perfect conditions for night rugby and a week under the belt in Cardiff resulting in a multitude of entertaining fixtures.

While these changes both in laws and format are likely to be tinkered in future iterations, the decision to experiment and the results provided suggest a great opportunity for growth.

Returning to old favourites

While the Ultimate Sevens felt like an explosion of new ideas into sevens, the fact the decision was made to play the three rounds in established rugby heartlands proved a valuable touch and nod to its connections to the wider rugby game.

With the south of France already a popular sevens location – hosting the SVNS World Championship final up the road in Bordeaux, the return of sevens rugby to Cardiff for the first time in 11 years proved even more special.

With Cardiff Arms Park an established institution in European rugby, it proved an ideal location for Ultimate Sevens to kick off its inaugural round of action.

Brentford Community Stadium, the former home of London Irish, is set to have its first rugby played there in three years with Thursday’s event, and hopes are high the final can send the competition out with excitement for the future.

A new pathway for Academy talent

An interesting narrative within the lead-up to Ultimate Sevens has been that the competition’s origins came from a desire to create an elite competition to complement a blossoming academy program.

The Ultimate Sevens Academy, the biggest program for sevens player development in the UK, proved front and centre in the long-term focus of the competition, with 12 players selected as academy picks and getting their first exposure to high-performance rugby.

Several academy players impressed from the jump, with Josa Cevaceva scoring the first golden try in the tournament’s history in Cardiff for Foudre Bleue, while Joss O’Keefe played a major part in Clan Taran’s title victory in Cardiff.

With the program establishing a foothold in Europe and starting to deliver programs in North America, the signs are positive that Ultimate Sevens can become a viable pathway for talent.

A way forward for the SVNS offseason

Following the conclusion of Ultimate Sevens, the national players will break away and commence preparations for the 2026-27 SVNS Series, set to kick off at the end of November.

If the reaction of the players is anything to go by, the athletes who participated have enjoyed a unique opportunity to experience sevens in a new way, and such an experience will prove beneficial once the main tournament of the calendar gets underway.

Alongside tournaments like the Taiyo Seimei Women’s Sevens in Japan and the Rugby Premier League in India, the growing number of off-season tournaments suggests a bright future for sevens rugby – with Ultimate Sevens set to play a big part in that.

With July-November having previously been regarded as ‘dead space’ in the sevens calendar, competitions like these not only each bring a unique novelty, but show how far the footprint of sevens rugby can reach.

Given the wide scope of players who have featured in each tournament, these offseason tournaments are only set to increase the reach of rugby at large, as well as turning more eyes to the SVNS Series.

ULTIMATE SEVENS STANDINGS AFTER ROUND TWO

WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT

Pacific Current – 14 pts

Atlantic Novas – 12 pts

Sol Feroz – 10 pts

Clan Taran – 8 pts

Foudre Bleue – 6 pts

Albion Athletic – 6 pts

MEN’S TOURNAMENT

Clan Taran – 14 pts

Albion Athletic –  12 pts

Pacific Current – 10 pts

Foudre Bleue – 8 pts

Sol Feroz – 6 pts

Atlantic Novas – 6 pts