Sevens should be rugby’s simplest sell.
Seven players. Short matches. Fast. Chaotic. Accessible.
Instead, it feels flat l, like a community town hall getting a local old man to be the DJ in a empty scouts hall
The rebranded HSBC SVNS circuit has replaced the old World Series, but in doing so it’s stripped away much of what made it compelling. Turn on Singapore or Canada and you can barely tell where you are. Same staging. Same branding. Often the same one-fifth-empty stands.
Sevens lives on atmosphere. When stadiums are one-fifth full, the product thins out. On television, it feels even flatter.
In its peak, the circuit had rhythm:
Dubai had scale.
Hong Kong had history.
London had tradition.
You followed teams through a season with narrative logic. You spotted talent and tracked their rise into the Test arena.
Now it feels like a travelling dud circus without jeopardy.
Ironically, after securing Olympic status, Sevens seems to have lost its broader identity. The Games matter. Everything else feels repetitive.
The three-day format doesn’t help. Friday is diluted. By Sunday, even hardcore fans are fatigued. You’re spreading a small crowd across too many sessions. Add music pumping through phases of play and a forced “party” vibe, and you risk alienating both purists and families. It starts to feel less like rugby and more like a themed event that happens to feature rugby.
And the competitive structure encourages caution. Pool losses aren’t fatal. Bonus points soften consequences. Teams manage risk instead of chasing wins. Conservative Sevens is a contradiction.
If the format is rugby’s Ferrari, the current structure keeps it stuck in first gear.
Maybe the answer is simpler:
Strong regional circuits (Europe, Oceania, Asia, Americas)
Clear qualification pathways
One annual World Championship with real stakes
And every two years (outside the Olympics), a 32-team, FA Cup-style knockout: lose once and you’re gone
High jeopardy. No safety nets. No managing pool maths. Just urgency.
Sevens doesn’t need more stops.
It needs consequence.
The game is brilliant.
The calendar and management aren’t.