Wellington Sevens
| Sport |
Rugby sevens |
| Founded |
2000 |
| No. of teams |
16 |
| Most recent champion(s) |
England (1st title) |
The Wellington Sevens or the New Zealand International Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament held in Wellington, New Zealand. The tournament, the third on the IRB Sevens World Series circuit, is played at Wellington's Westpac Stadium in early February and includes teams from 16 countries. The hosting contract between the International Rugby Board and the New Zealand Rugby Union runs until 2011.
The event attracts over thirty thousand spectators annually. The tournament has become Wellington's largest sporting event and one of New Zealand's leading sporting events.
It also has a reputation for a party atmosphere, with a large proportion of attendees choosing to wear fancy dress. Recent years have seen large groups of costumes that vary from Fred Flintstone and Wilma to Care Bears, dance troops, wrestlers and many other interesting costumes. More recently items of recent media interest or advertisements form a key theme. Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, George Bush have made appearances. Movie figures such as Men in Black (MIB) and Austin Powers are crowd favorites and an impersonator of Austin has been a regular feature each year performing to the crowd.
The 2009 Wellington Sevens was famous for television graphics being incorrect. When a player scored a try, the graphics showed the phrase such as "1st Tryin Wellington" rather than "1st Try In Wellington".
The 2009 and current champions of the Wellington Tournament are England, who beat New Zealand 19-17, with England scoring a breakaway try in the dying minutes of the 2nd half.
External links
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Wellington Sevens |
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| Seasons |
2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010
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