1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens
Encyclopedia
The inaugural 1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens was held at Murrayfield
Murrayfield Stadium
Murrayfield Stadium is a sports stadium located in the west end of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Its all-seater capacity was recently reduced from 67,800 to 67,130 to incorporate the largest permanent "big screen" in the country though it still remains the largest stadium in Scotland and one...

 in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, in April 1993. The International Rugby Board
International Rugby Board
The International Rugby Board is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. It was founded in 1886 as the International Rugby Football Board by the unions of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. England refused to join until 1890. The International Rugby Football Board changed its name to the...

 invited the established rugby union nations but also were keen to involve emerging nations in the event, recognising the fact that Sevens was providing the bridge between the developed rugby nations and those whose rugby union traditions were less well established. England defeated Australia 21-17 to become the first team to hold the Melrose Cup and claim the title world champions.

Background

Prior to 1993, Rugby Sevens had already built up a substantial international presence. The relative ease with which the rules could be learnt and applied, combined with the ability to quickly organise teams due to fewer players, as well as providing a fast paced game for spectators enticed many nations to set up domestic tournaments, and appealed to a large international audience outside of the established power houses of the traditional 15-a-side game. Such was the international popularity of the game that the Scottish Rugby Union
Scottish Rugby Union
The Scottish Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. It is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873, as the Scottish Football Union.-History:...

 were able to organise a well attended International Tournament in 1973
1973 International Seven-A-Side Tournament
The 1973 International Seven-A-Side tournament was the first Rugby Sevens tournament to feature national representative teams, predating the first official Rugby World Cup Sevens by twenty years. Held in Scotland as part of the Scottish Rugby Union's centenary celebrations, the tournament featured...

 to celebrate the centenary of the Scottish Rugby Union. England came away victorious from that first international event.

Soon after, in early 1975 the Chairman of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union, A.D.C. "Tokkie" Smith, was talking with tobacco company executive Ian Gow. Gow had been a spectator at the 1973 event and had proposed to Smith to sponsor a Rugby tournament with top teams from throughout the world competing. This gave rise to the inaugural Hong Kong Sevens
Hong Kong Sevens
The Hong Kong Sevens is considered the premier tournament on the IRB Sevens World Series in rugby sevens—a variant of rugby union....

 on March 28, 1976. This tournament grew throughout the 1970s and 1980s in both supporter popularity and the number of participating teams. Sevens was proving to be the bridge between the established international rugby elite and those nations with less resources and less developed professional infrastructures.

In the early 1990s, The Scottish Rugby Union
Scottish Rugby Union
The Scottish Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. It is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873, as the Scottish Football Union.-History:...

 made a proposal to the International Rugby Football Board for the creation of a Rugby Sevens World Cup. The World Cup for the 15-a-side game had been staged successfully in 1987 and 1991 and had proved the worth of such an event. The IRB, which had a duty to involve and help to develop the rugby of the new member unions, recognised the value of Sevens to further this end, and their chairman, Vernon Pugh, enthusiastically agreed. Thus, the IRB organised the first officially sanctioned Rugby World Cup Sevens to be held at Murrayfield
Murrayfield Stadium
Murrayfield Stadium is a sports stadium located in the west end of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Its all-seater capacity was recently reduced from 67,800 to 67,130 to incorporate the largest permanent "big screen" in the country though it still remains the largest stadium in Scotland and one...

 in April 1993. The ultimate prize of the competition was to be called the Melrose Cup, named after the small Scottish town of Melrose
Melrose, Scotland
Melrose is a small town and civil parish in the Scottish Borders, historically in Roxburghshire. It is in the Eildon committee area.-Etymology:...

 where the Sevens format had been born in 1883. A butchers apprentice and Melrose 20-a-side quarterback, Ned Haig, suggested having a rugby tournament as part of a sports day to raise funds at the end of the rugby season and his boss David Sanderson proposed playing in a tournament that required reduced numbers of players in each team. On 28 April 1883, the Melrose seven-a-side tournament began, with the time of each match limited to 15 minutes. The first World Cup was held 12 days shy of the 110th anniversary of that first tournament.

Venue

The IRB appropriately situated the tournament in the spiritual home nation of Rugby Sevens, Scotland, and therefore the games in the World Cup were played at the home of Scottish Rugby Union, Murrayfield Stadium
Murrayfield Stadium
Murrayfield Stadium is a sports stadium located in the west end of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Its all-seater capacity was recently reduced from 67,800 to 67,130 to incorporate the largest permanent "big screen" in the country though it still remains the largest stadium in Scotland and one...

.

Qualification

Of the twenty-four nations involved, nineteen were invited and five had to go through pre-tournament qualification. Four of the qualification places were won by Namibia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Spain who booked their places by reaching the semi-finals of one qualifying event in Sicily. Latvia won their place by beating Russia in the final of a mini-tournament staged in Moscow to decide who would replace the USSR, which had broken up since its invite to the world cup. The other participants were Argentina, Australia, Canada, England, Fiji, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Scotland, Tonga, South Africa, South Korea, USA, Wales and Western Samoa.

Sicily - 1992

Seventeen nations came to Catania
Catania
Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...

, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, in May 1992 (from 29th to 31st) to battle for four qualifying spots in the finals in 1993. They were divided into three groups, five in one and six in the other two. Taiwan, Namibia, Spain and Hong Kong were the successful qualifiers after three group stages and three knockout rounds. The affair was complicated and confused. The group stages produced a situation where, by the transition from the second to the third groups, the lower ranked teams were better off losing to one another in order to face weaker opposition in stage 3. Also, the two teams with the best records leading into the quarter-finals, Namibia (played 8 won 8) and Zimbabwe (played 9 won 7, drawn 1, lost 1) ended up playing each other. Meanwhile a Czechoslovakian side that had won just one match made it to the quarterfinals at the expense of Tunisia that had won 5 of 9. The original groups were as follows:

Group Stage 1

Pool A Arabian Gulf
Arabian Gulf rugby union team
The Arabian Gulf rugby union team was a combined team of players from Arab states of Persian Gulf — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that represented the Arabian Peninsula area in international rugby union competitions...


Pool B

Pool C

Source:

The teams that placed in the top four qualified for the second group stage, whilst those eliminated played in the Etna Cup, with the Sicily side making up the numbers for this mini knockout competition.

Group Stage 2

The second stage groupings grouped the three winners together, the three second place teams together etc. Thus:
Pool D
Pool E

Pool F

Pool G

Group Stage 3

No team was eliminated from stage 2, just rearranged on new seedings that went into Pools H, I, L and M. These four pools of three teams each meant that each team had to play a further two matches and this process resulted in eight teams given a new seeding for the quarterfinals, with four teams eliminated, to play in the Etna Cup. The end result of Group Stage 3, taking into account all games in the tournament to date was as follows:
Key to colours in group tables
Team that progressed to the semi-finals and so qualified for world cup (also indicated in bold type)
Teams eliminated into Etna Cup (also indicated in italics)

Team Seed Pld W D L
1 5 1 0 4
2 9 6 1 2
3 9 6 1 2
4 9 7 2 0
5 8 4 4 0
6 9 1 5 3
7 8 4 4 0
8 9 7 1 1
Elim 9 5 2 2
Elim 9 4 5 0
Elim 9 3 6 0
Elim 8 1 6 1

Knockout Results

Etna Cup

The Etna Cup was contested on the Sunday by the following:
Hosts
Stage 1 Eliminated Teams Arabian Gulf
Arabian Gulf rugby union team
The Arabian Gulf rugby union team was a combined team of players from Arab states of Persian Gulf — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that represented the Arabian Peninsula area in international rugby union competitions...


Stage 2 Eliminated Teams

The Sicilian team were completely fresh and faced opponents who in some cases had played nine draining games. Sicily entered Sunday having played a total of two games. The final was contested by Sicily and Tunisia. Although Tunisia led by 2 points when normal time expired, the Italian referee allowed play to continue until, in the fourteenth minute of the second half, the Sicilians scored.

Former USSR representative

Although the Soviet Union had originally been an invited team, it had subsequently collapsed and the former constituent nations, demanded their own qualifying event. This was held in Moscow where the Latvia team, in their first ever sporting event, overcame Ukraine
Ukraine national rugby union team (sevens)
The Ukraine national rugby union sevens is a minor national sevens side.-2008 Hannover Sevens:Group B matches --Ukraine:Head coach: Michel BishopSource:...

 and Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan national rugby union team (sevens)
The Kazakhstan national rugby union sevens is a minor national sevens side.-Singer Sri Lankan Airlines Rugby 7's:-Rugby at the 1998 Asian Games:Group A matches -December 7December 8 - 5th place match...

 to reach the final where they beat Russia to claim the last place in Edinburgh.

Format

The 24 nations were drawn into four pools of six teams with the top two progressing to the Melrose Cup, the third to the Plate and the fourth-placed teams contesting the Bowl competition. The groups were arranged thus:
Pool A
Pool B

Pool C

Pool D

First Round

As expected, the leading nations all made it through. However, only South Africa, New Zealand and Western Samoa could boast unbeaten records at this stage. Fiji, Australia, Tonga, Ireland and England all lost one match in their respective pools. In Pool A Wales, lost to South Africa but distinguished themselves against the powerhouse of sevens rugby, Fiji, coming back from 21-0 down to lose narrowly 21-17. South Africa managed to overcome Fiji in their pool match. In Pool B Ireland had an excellent first round, beating United States 38-0. They lost to New Zealand, who won the group, but finished second. Korea defeated France 14-0 and the French struggled to beat the Netherlands in an earlier tie. However, the French managed to qualify for the Bowl in fourth place, with the surprise being Korea making the Plate competition in third. In Pool C, the hosts Scotland finished fourth behind Argentina in third (although they ended with the same number of match points as the South Americans and had a better points difference they had lost to the Argentinians). The Scots managed to beat eventual group winners Tonga but lost to Australia and Argentina. Both Tonga and Australia lost one match each, and crucially Tonga beat the decider between the two sides meaning that Australia ended second in that group. In Pool D, eventual tournament winners England progressed well but were beaten by the Samoans but 28-10. Samoa went on to win the pool. Despite heavy defeats to England and Samoa, Spain managed to gain third spot just ahead of Canada.

Quarter-Finals

The quarter finals were not knockout but took the form of another round robin with the teams split into two groups. Fiji emerged as the only nation with an unbeaten record after overcoming Ireland, Tonga and Western Samoa in the first. The second group was more fiercely contested with each nation claiming at least one victory. Australia and England who progressed to the semi finals despite their respective defeats by New Zealand and Australia. England had assumed they would top their group and avoid Fiji, even with a defeat to Australia in the final pool game. They opted to rest some first team players but expressed dismay in finding themselves placed second in the group behind Australia. The England team had thought that table placings in the event of a tied points tally were decided on tries scored. However, tournament rules stated that the first differentiator was results between the tied teams.

Knock-out stage and the Moment of the Tournament

Although England lost to Australia in the quarters, they qualified for the semi-finals against the favourites, Fiji. Dave Scully
Dave Scully
David Scully is an English rugby union player who was part of the England 7's squad that won the 1993 Sevens world cup in which he won the for a crunching tackle on Fijian Mesake Rasari.-Playing career:...

 produced what was awarded the "Moment of the Tournament" prize with a tackle on Mesake Rasari that turned a certain Fiji try into an England score. England won 21-7. In the other semi-final Ireland were narrowly beaten 21-19 by the Australians, setting up a final between teams that had already met in the quarterfinal pools.

Final

The final was contested by England and Australia. Just before half time, England led 21-0 through tries from Andrew Harriman
Andrew Harriman
Andrew Tuoyo Harriman is an English rugby union player who played as a wing for Harlequins and was capped both as a full international, but was prominent as an exponent of the sevens game..-Early life:...

, Lawrence Dallaglio
Lawrence Dallaglio
Lorenzo Bruno Nero "Lawrence" Dallaglio, OBE is a retired English rugby union player and former captain of the English national team. He played as a flanker or number eight for London Wasps and never played for another club, having arrived at Sudbury as a teenager...

 and Tim Rodber
Tim Rodber
Timothy Andrew Keith Rodber formerly a rugby union footballer who played at Number eight, flanker or lock for Northampton Saints, England, and the British and Irish Lions...

, all converted by Nick Beal
Nick Beal
Nicholas David Beal is a rugby union player who played at Fullback for Northampton Saints, England and the Lions. He attended the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe....

. Michael Lynagh
Michael Lynagh
Michael Lynagh is a former Australian rugby union footballer who played as a Fly-half.Lynagh represented Australia from 1984 to 1995, playing at both inside centre and fly half. Lynagh was capped 72 times for Australia, and was captain from 1993 to 1995. He was the world points scoring record...

 scored a try before haf time, but failed to convert his own try. In the second half Australia hit back strongly and first David Campese
David Campese
David Ian Campese , also known as Campo, is a former Australian rugby union player. Campese was capped by the Wallabies 101 times, and held the world record for the most tries in test matches until Daisuke Ohata scored his 65th try playing for Japan on 14 May 2006...

 and then Semi Taupeaafe scored further tries, the latter also converted by Michael Lynagh. However, time ran out on the Australians and it was England captain "Prince" Andrew Harriman who was presented with the Melrose Cup
Melrose Cup
The Melrose Cup is the main prize of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. The trophy is named after the town of Melrose, Scotland, the birthplace of rugby sevens. The trophy has been presented to the winner of the world cup since the inaugural tournament in 1993. The only teams to have held the trophy are...

 by the Princess Royal
Princess Royal
Princess Royal is a style customarily awarded by a British monarch to his or her eldest daughter. The style is held for life, so a princess cannot be given the style during the lifetime of another Princess Royal...

. Adedayo Adebayo, a member of that victorious side later recalled how surprising the victory had been to the players involved in it. He said "We were basically a scratch side. We got together for the first time as a team the week before, played one practice match and went on to win! But there were a lot of quality players in that side and looking back that's why we were able to wing it slightly - the talent came through. Looking back though we had no expectations of winning at the start. We didn't know how far we would go. It just happened."

Other Prizes

Wales had gone into the Plate competition as favourites based on their rousing display against Fiji. However, they were stunned by the Spanish side who beat them 10-7. Argentina meanwhile displayed impressive dominance against South Korea and came through 24 point to nil. They went on to win the final 19-12 against a Spanish side that had distinguished themselves enormously, coming from the position of one of the four pre-tournament qualifiers to reaching the final of the Plate competition.

Of the four teams contesting the Bowl, Scotland and France were the established nations but met each other in the sem-final Scotland overcame the lacklustre French side 14-7 and Japan posted 14 points to Canada's nil to reach the final. Japan beat the hosts in the final in an impressive fashion winning 33 points to 19. Princess Anne awarded the prizes and Scotland received tankards.

Results

Source for the results below: www.imgmediaarchive.com

Group Stage

Key to colours in group tables
Teams that progressed to the Quarter Final Groups (also indicated in bold type)
Team that progressed to the Plate competition (also indicated in bold italics)
Team that progressed to the Bowl competition (also indicated in plain italics)


All times British time (UTC+1
British Summer Time
Western European Summer Time is a summer daylight saving time scheme, 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used in the following places:* the Canary Islands* Portugal * Ireland...

)

Pool A

Team Pld W D L PF PA +/- Pts
5 5 0 0 175 43 132 15
5 4 0 1 150 60 90 13
5 3 0 2 135 78 57 11
5 2 0 3 67 118 -51 9
5 1 0 4 44 133
7
5 0 0 5 29 168
5

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Pool B

Team Pld W D L PF PA +/- Pts
5 5 0 0 157 24 133 15
5 4 0 1 128 45 83 13
5 3 0 2 80 98 -18 11
5 2 0 3 62 71 -9 9
5 1 0 4 62 105
7
5 0 0 5 33 179
5

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Pool C

Team Pld W D L PF PA +/- Pts
5 4 0 1 117 34 83 13
5 4 0 1 143 29 114 13
5 3 0 2 67 81 -14 11
5 3 0 2 96 64 32 11
5 1 0 4 41 123
7
5 0 0 5 24 157
5

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Pool D

Team Pld W D L PF PA +/- Pts
5 5 0 0 193 31 162 15
5 4 0 1 138 38 100 13
5 2 0 3 59 114 -55 9
5 2 0 3 75 87 -12 9
5 1 0 4 43 161
7
5 1 0 4 55 132
7

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Pool E

Team Pld W D L PF PA +/- Pts
3 3 0 0 66 26 40 9
3 2 0 1 38 43 -5 7
3 1 0 2 54 38 16 5
3 0 0 3 26 77
3

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Pool F

Team Pld W D L PF PA +/- Pts
3 2 0 1 28 59 -31 7
3 2 0 1 47 40 7 7
3 1 0 2 43 35 8 5
3 1 0 2 68 52 16 5

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Knockout

Semi-Finals - Match details


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Final - Match details


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Bowl

Bowl Semi-Finals - Match details

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Bowl Final - Match details

Plate

Plate Semi-Finals - Match details

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Plate Final - Match details

External links

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