The Rugby World Cup Sevens is the most important international 7s tournament of the world. It was first held in 1993 in Murrayfield, Edinburgh ( Scotland ) and takes place every four years. The cup is called the Melrose Cup in memory of the scottish town Melrose where the first 7-a-side rugby match in history took place. The creators of the trophy were inspirated by the original “Ladies Cup” from the first 1883 game. Scottish jewellers Hamilton & Inches made the trophy from nine-carat yellow gold. It’s 25cm tall, weighs 790 grams and sits on a walnut plinth with a nine-carat gold band inscribed with the names of the champions.

Two World Cup Sevens took place in the mecca of Sevens Rugby, in Hong Kong. This means basically party all night long for three whole days in front a sold out stadium. 120.000 spectators there, 10 million hits on the official tournament website and worldwide broadcast to 450 million households push this world cup behind the Olympics, soccer world cup, the XVs Rugby World Cup and the athletics world cup to fifth place of the biggest sports events in the world already.

The next world cup will take place in Dubai. This will also be the venue for the first ever women World Cup Sevens. With great support from a sheik and Emirate Airline, a new stadium with a capacity of about 50.000 and a sports centre is being built. Dubai has earned an excellent reputation as tournament organisor and has been the first tournament of every season since the inception of the IRB Sevens World Series. This takes place at the end of November every year. About 60.000 visitors want to see the best Sevens teams in the world. A lucrative business for the airline Emirate as about 90% of the spectators have to fly in.

Tournaments and world champions:

1993 - Edinburgh (Scotland)            - England
1997 - Hong Kong                           - Fiji
2001 - Mar del Plata (Argentina)      - New Zealand
2005 - Hong Kong                           - Fiji

The best try-scorer at World Cup Sevens is Fijian winger Marika Vunibaka with 23 tries during three World Cups.

To the final ranking of the European Sevens for men 2009