Dubai Women's Sevens

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The Dubai Women's Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament held in Dubai, UAE. The tournament includes several competitions including, since 1994,[1] an international women's invitational competition. Though most entrants are ad hoc sides composed of club and international players from a variety of (generally European) countries, some are official national selections - the results of matches between such sides appear below.

The first Dubai women's sevens competition was held in 1994, where it was won by Kuwait who defeated the Royal Hong Kong Police in the final.[2] Until the 2007 edition was held at the Dubai Exiles Rugby Ground, in 2008 it moved to The Sevens, a new stadium built to host the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens.[3] The 2009 competition took place between 3–5 December.

In 2011, a new competition was launched by International Rugby Board (IRB) - the IRB Women's Challenge Cup - as a first step towards a full schedule of IRB-sponsored women's sevens events for 2012–13 season. It featured eight official national teams. The traditional international women's invitational competition also took place on neighbouring pitches.

On 4 October 2012, the IRB announced the launch of the IRB Women's Sevens World Series for the 2012–13 season. The Dubai competition will be the first of four events in the inaugural season.[4]

Results[edit]

Year  Venue  Cup final Placings Ref
IRB Challenge Winner Score Runner-up Plate Bowl Shield
2011 The Sevens
Canada
26–7
England

Australia

Spain
n/a
World Series Winner Score Runner-up Plate Bowl Shield
2012 The Sevens
New Zealand
41–0
South Africa

Spain

Russia

United States
[5]
2013 The Sevens
Australia
35–27
New Zealand

Russia

England

Fiji
[6]
2014 The Sevens
New Zealand
19–17
Australia

Canada

England

Brazil
[7]
2015 The Sevens
Australia
31–12
Russia

England

New Zealand

Japan
[8]
Winner Score Runner-up Third Fourth Fifth
2016 The Sevens
New Zealand
17–5
Australia

Russia

England

Fiji
[9]
2017 The Sevens
Australia
34–0
United States

Russia

Canada

New Zealand
[10]
2018 The Sevens
New Zealand
26–14
Canada

Australia

United States

Russia
2019 The Sevens
New Zealand
17–14
Canada

United States

Australia

France
2020 The Sevens Tournament cancelled [11]
2021
I
The Sevens
Australia
22–7
Fiji

France

Russia

Great Britain
2021
II
The Sevens
Australia
15–5
Fiji

France

Russia

United States
2022 The Sevens
Australia
26–19
New Zealand

United States

France

Fiji
2023 The Sevens
Australia
26–19
New Zealand

France

Canada

Fiji

Earlier winners[edit]

Dubai Tournament 2006[edit]

No official national selections.

Dubai Tournament 2007[edit]

Played on 1 and 2 December 2007 at Dubai (Source Canada Union). Participants included Canada and USA, but there were no inter-national matches.

Dubai Tournament 2008[edit]

Date: 27–29 November 2008.

  • England played as England Sporting Chance Foundation. USA did not have this tournament listed as part of their preparation. Netherlands and Canada are believed to have been near full strength as were the England team. A Kenyan team had entered, but withdrew (Source Netherlands rugby).

Group Games

  • Sporting Chance Foundation (England) 34-7 USA
  • Canada 33-5 WOP Netherlands

Semi Final

  • Sporting Chance Foundation (England) 12-5 Canada
  • England went on to win the final. USA and Canada were joint third. Netherlands won the plate.
  • At the same time a "Gulf" competition was played but the results are not included as none of the "nations" has its own union.

Full results

Dubai Tournament 2009[edit]

Venue/Date: 4 December 2009, Dubai. As ever the status of some teams is debatable. Possible International match ups are:

Group Games

  • Georgia 0-54 Arabian Gulf
  • France 21-12 USA
  • Kenya 17-21 Arabian Gulf
  • Georgia 0-41 Kenya

Classification Stages

  • Kenya 5-26 USA (Plate semi-final)
  • France finished as champions
  • Arabian Gulf and Kenya both lost in the Plate semi-finals
  • USA lost in the Plate final

All results

Dubai Tournament 2010[edit]

Venue/Date: 2–3 December 2009, Dubai. As ever the status of some teams is debatable. Fixtures between what appear to be international teams are:

Group Games

  • France 35 Brazil 0
  • France 12 Almaty-Kazakhstan[12] 0
  • Almaty-Kazakhstan 12 Brazil 7
  • France finished as runners-up (winners Samurai Dubai included several England players).
  • Kenya and Almaty-Kazakhstan lost in the cup quarter-finals
  • Brazil finished as runner-up in the Plate (losing to Pink Ba-Baas, composed of English club players).

(Full results)

Dubai Tournament 2011[edit]

2–3 December 2011

IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup[edit]

The first fully sanctioned IRB women's tournament (apart from the 2009 World Cup). Held alongside that year's Dubai Sevens and the normal Women's Invitational, with the semi-finals, the final and all of the Pool A games held on the main pitch. Part of a plan to launch a full IRB International Women's Sevens Series for 2012–13. Selection criteria were not revealed by the IRB, though the teams selected and the seedings roughly reflected the 2009 World Cup rankings - but with China and Brazil invited instead of Spain and France in order to give worldwide representation. Spain were later included when New Zealand declined their invitation to attend.[13]

POOL A

Nation Won Drawn Lost For Against
Canada 3 0 0 64 21
Australia 2 0 1 59 19
Spain 1 0 2 36 31
Brazil 0 0 3 0 88
  • Australia 12-5 Spain
  • Canada 31-0 Brazil
  • Australia 40-0 Brazil
  • Canada 19-14 Spain
  • Australia 7-14 Canada
  • Spain 17-0 Brazil

5th to 8th Place

  • South Africa 19-5 Brazil
  • Spain 22-14 China

7th Place

  • Brazil 14-17 China

5th Place

  • South Africa 0-28 Spain

POOL B

Nation Won Drawn Lost For Against
England 3 0 0 79 34
USA 2 0 1 36 48
South Africa 1 0 2 57 58
China 0 0 3 36 68
  • USA 22-10 South Africa
  • England 26-15 China
  • USA 14-7 China
  • England 22-19 South Africa
  • South Africa 28-14 China
  • England 31-0 USA

Semi Finals

  • England 12-10 Australia
  • Canada 36-0 USA

3rd Place

  • Australia 22-5 USA

Final

  • England 7-26 Canada

Women's International Invitational Tournament[edit]

This tournament, as usual, featured a mixture of national selections and international invitational teams. The official national teams were France and Kenya in Pool A, and Netherlands and "Maple Leafs" (the Canadian development team) in Pool B. Unofficial teams were Moscow Region and Tuks (South African universities) in Pool A, and Iron Ladies (Ukraine) and Team Globaleye (international team) in Pool B.

  • Netherlands reach the final, where they beat the Maple Leafs
  • France were knocked-out in the semi-finals by Maple Leafs
  • Kenya lost all of their pool games, but finished as runner-up in the plate.

The following are the results of the games involving the official national selections (including the Maple Leafs, though their games are not internationals) - full results can be found here.

Pool games

  • Netherlands 21-0 Maple Leafs
  • France 35-0 Kenya

Semi-finals

  • France 0-12 Maple Leafs

Final

  • Netherlands 17-5 Maple Leafs

Dubai Tournament 2012[edit]

IRB Women's Sevens World Series[edit]

Women's Invitational Tournament[edit]

Dubai Tournament 2014[edit]

IRB Women's Sevens World Series[edit]

International Invitational[edit]

Dubai Tournament 2015[edit]

IRB Women's Sevens World Series[edit]

International Invitational[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Women's Sevens heaven". 22 November 1994.
  2. ^ Post Magazine (15 August 2017). "Her mum played in Hong Kong's first women's touring side and now Kelsie Bouttle is creating her own rugby history at the World Cup". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
  3. ^ "Emirates unveils Dubai venue 'The Sevens'". International Rugby Board. 2 July 2008. Archived from the original on 31 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  4. ^ "IRB announces Women's Sevens World Series" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 4 October 2012. Archived from the original on 19 October 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2012.
  5. ^ "Womens World Series I – Dubai". Rugby7.com. 2012.
  6. ^ "Womens World Series II – Dubai". Rugby7.com. 2013.
  7. ^ "Womens World Series III – Dubai". Rugby7.com. 2014.
  8. ^ "Womens World Series IV – Dubai". Rugby7.com. 2015.
  9. ^ "Womens World Series V – Dubai". Rugby7.com. 2016.
  10. ^ "Womens World Series VI – Dubai". Rugby7.com. 2017.
  11. ^ "Plans revised for HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2021". World Rugby. 29 July 2020. Archived from the original on 29 July 2020.
  12. ^ This would appear to be effectively the Kazakhstan national team
  13. ^ "First IRB Women's Sevens event announced" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 14 September 2011. Archived from the original on 25 September 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2011.{{cite press release}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)