The inaugural Ultimate Sevens season will conclude this Thursday at the Brentford Community Stadium in London, with all six clubs and twelve teams set for an exciting night of winner-take-all competition.
Three weeks of action has shown a new side to the game of sevens, and 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 Ultimate Sevens, and where the sevens code leaves off after an exciting inaugural season.
Rivals become allies
With the clubs swapping countries, one of the greatest joys of the action on the pitch was seeing long-time rivals from the SVNS series come together to play on the same side.
The results were joyful team combinations, which were reflected both on the park with many great stories coming from Ultimate Sevens camaraderie, and on the park through quality rugby.
From the Blitzboks’ Selyn Davids combining with Team GB stars Will Homer and Tom Emery to beat Clan Taran in Cardiff, to Maddison Levi flourishing with a host of Fijian stars in Biarritz, it offered a unique opportunity to see these athletes express themselves free from national duty.
It’s a concept that Ultimate Sevens will no doubt rely on further into the future, and one that makes the tournament stand out.
Change of regulations
Changing the impact of the whistle on the game can have its pros and cons, but the new approach taken with Ultimate Sevens has been reflected in new strategies that have emerged across all sides’ coaches.
While the general game is unmistakably rugby sevens, the decision to play a 10-minute match without a break, the introduction of time-outs, golden tries to manage tiebreakers and a change to the scoring system resulted in unique approaches to victory, while encouraging breakdowns.
This particularly proved to be the case in Biarritz, with perfect conditions for night rugby and a week under his belt in Cardiff resulting in plenty of entertaining games.
Although these changes in laws and format will likely be modified in future iterations, the decision to experiment and the results obtained indicate a great opportunity for growth.
Returning to old favorites
While Ultimate Sevens felt like an explosion of new ideas in sevens, the fact that the decision was made to play three rounds in established rugby hubs proved a valuable touch and sign of their connection to the wider game of rugby.
From south of France already a popular sevens venue – hosting the SVNS World Cup final on 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 the ideal location for the Ultimate Sevens to begin its first round of action.
Brentford Community Stadium, the former home of London Irish, is set to play its first rugby there in three years with Thursday’s event, and hopes are high that the final could send the competition excited for the future.
A new path for Academy talents
An interesting story in the lead up to Ultimate Sevens is that the origins of the competition came from a desire to create an elite competition to complement the flourishing academy program.
The Ultimate Sevens Academy, the UK’s largest Player of the Week development programme, has proved front and center in the competition’s long-term focus, with 12 players selected as academy picks and introduced to high-performance rugby for the first time.
A number of academy players impressed on the bounce, with Jos Cevacheva scoring the first golden try in Cardiff tournament history for the Foudre Bleue, while Joss O’Keefe played a big part in Clan Taran’s title win in Cardiff.
With the program establishing a foothold in Europe and beginning to deliver programs in North America, there are positive signs that Ultimate Sevens can become a viable avenue for talent.
Way forward for SVNS offseason
Following the conclusion of the Ultimate Sevens, the national players will separate and begin preparations for the 2026-27 SVNS series, which will begin at the end of November.
If the reaction from the players is anything to go by, the athletes who took part enjoyed a unique opportunity to experience the week in a new way, and such an experience will prove useful when the main tournament on the calendar begins.
In addition to tournaments such as the Taiyo Seimei Women’s Sevens in Japan and the Rugby Premier League in India, the growing number of off-season tournaments portends a bright future for rugby sevens – with Ultimate Sevens set to play a big part in that.
With July-November previously considered a ‘dead space’ in the sevens calendar, competitions like this not only bring a unique novelty, but show just how far a rugby sevens footprint can reach.
Given the wide range of players that featured in each tournament, these off-season tournaments are only set to increase the reach of rugby as a whole, as well as get more eyes on the SVNS series.
ULTIMATE SEVEN DISORDER AFTER ROUND TWO
WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT
Pacific Current – 14 points
Atlantic Novas – 12 points
Left Feroz – 10 points
Clan Taran – 8 points
Blue Lightning – 6 points
Albion Athletic – 6 points
MEN’S TOURNAMENT
Clan Taran – 14 points
Albion Athletic – 12 points
Pacific Current – 10 points
Blue Lightning – 8 points
Left Feroz – 6 points
Atlantic Novas – 6 points