The main competition for rugby sevens is the World Rugby Sevens Series, a series of seven to twelve tournaments played each year from approximately November to May. Rugby sevens is also played at some quadrennial events. The main quadrennial events are the Rugby World Cup Sevens and the Summer Olympics. Rugby sevens is now recognised as an Olympic sport and made its debut in the 2016 Summer Olympics. Rugby sevens is sanctioned by World Rugby, and is played under similar laws, and on a field of the same dimensions as the 15-player game. While a regular rugby union match lasts at least 80 minutes, a normal sevens match consists of two halves of seven minutes with a two-minute half-time break. The final of a competition can be played over two halves of ten minutes each. (In the World Rugby Sevens Series, only the Cup final, which determines the overall winner of an event, is played with 10-minute halves; all finals for lower-level trophies are played with 7-minute halves). Sevens scores are generally comparable to regular rugby scores; scoring occurs much more frequently in sevens, since the defenders are more spaced out. The scoring system is the same as regular rugby union, namely five points for a try, three points for a drop goal (whether from penalty or open-play) and two points for a post-try conversion. The shorter match length allows rugby sevens tournaments to be completed in a day or a weekend. Many sevens tournaments have a competition for a cup, a plate, a bowl, and a shield, allowing many teams of different standards to avoid leaving empty handed. Sevens tournaments are traditionally known for having more of a relaxed atmosphere than fifteen-a-side games, and are often known as "festivals". Sevens tournaments gained their "popularity as an end of season diversion from the dourer and sterner stuff that provides the bulk of a normal season's watching."[6] Fans frequently attend in fancy dress, and entertainment is put on for them.
The World Rugby Sevens Series, known officially as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series due to sponsorship from banking group HSBC, is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. The series, organised for the first time as the World Sevens Series in the 1999–2000 season, was formed to develop an elite-level competition series between rugby nations and develop the sevens game into a viable commercial product for World Rugby. Teams compete for the World Rugby Sevens Series title by accumulating points based on their finishing position in each tournament. New Zealand had originally dominated the Series, winning each of the first six titles from 1999–2000 to 2004–05, but since then, Fiji, South Africa and Samoa have each won season titles. As of the 2015–16 season, the season's circuit consists of 10 tournaments in 10 countries, and visits five of the six populated continents. Australia, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada, United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, France England each host one event. Two previous host countries, Singapore and France, returned to the circuit for the 2015–16 season to replace Japan and Scotland, and a completely new tour stop in Canada was also added https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Rugby_Sevens_Series
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