2008–09 IRB Sevens World Series

The 2008–09 IRB Sevens World Series was the tenth of an annual IRB Sevens World Series of rugby union sevens tournaments for full national sides run by the International Rugby Board since 1999–2000.

2008–09 IRB Sevens
Series X
Hosts
Date28 November 2008 – 31 May 2009
Nations32
Final positions
Champions South Africa
Runners-up Fiji
Third England
Series details
Top try scorerKenya Collins Injera
Top point scorerEngland Ben Gollings

South Africa clinched the 2008–09 World Series, its first Series title. The defending series champions New Zealand finished fourth.

Sevens is traditionally played in a two-day tournament format. However, the most famous event, the Hong Kong Sevens, is played over three days, largely because it involves 24 teams instead of the normal 16. Starting in 2008–09, the Australia leg (which involves the normal 16 teams) was spread out over a three-day period.

Tournaments

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The series' tournaments are identical to 2007–2008 and span the globe:

2008-09 Itinerary[1]
Leg Venue Date Winner
Dubai The Sevens[2] November 28–29, 2008   South Africa
South Africa Outeniqua Park, George December 5–6, 2008   South Africa
New Zealand Westpac Stadium, Wellington February 6–7, 2009   England
United States Petco Park, San Diego February 14–15, 2009   Argentina
Hong Kong Hong Kong Stadium March 27–29, 2009   Fiji
Australia Adelaide Oval, Adelaide April 3–5, 2009   South Africa
London Twickenham May 23–24, 2009   England
Scotland Murrayfield, Edinburgh May 30–31, 2009   Fiji

The 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens was not a part of the 2008-09 series. Unlike the 2005 edition held in Hong Kong, the 2009 edition did not replace one of the 2008-09 series events. The World Cup was held in Dubai from March 5–7, 2009 and won by Wales.

Core teams

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Prior to the season, the IRB announced the 12 "core teams" that would receive guaranteed berths in each event in the 2008–09 series:[3]

The one new core team was the USA, which replaced its neighbor Canada.[3]

Points schedule

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The season championship is determined by points earned in each tournament. For most events, points are awarded on the following schedule:[4]

  • Cup winner (1st place): 20 points
  • Cup runner-up (2nd place): 16 points
  • Losing Cup semifinalists (3rd & 4th place): 12 points
  • Plate winner (5th place): 8 points
  • Plate runner-up (6th place): 6 points
  • Losing Plate semifinalists (7th & 8th place): 4 points
  • Bowl winner (9th place): 2 points

Points are awarded on a different schedule for the Hong Kong Sevens:[4]

  • Cup winner (1st place): 30 points
  • Cup runner-up (2nd place): 24 points
  • Losing Cup semifinalists (3rd & 4th place): 18 points
  • Losing Cup quarterfinalists (5th, 6th, 7th & 8th place): 8 points
  • Plate winner (9th place): 4 points
  • Plate runner-up (10th place): 3 points
  • Losing Plate semifinalists (11th & 12th place): 2 points
  • Bowl winner (17th place): 1 point

Tournament structure

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In all tournaments except Hong Kong, 16 teams participate. Due to its place as the sports most prestigious annual event, the Hong Kong tournament has 24 teams. In each tournament, the teams are divided into pools of four teams, who play a round-robin within the pool. Points are awarded in each pool on a different schedule from most rugby tournaments–3 for a win, 2 for a draw, 1 for a loss. The first tiebreaker is the head-to-head result between the tied teams, followed by difference in points scored during the tournament.[5]

Four trophies are awarded in each tournament, except for Hong Kong. In descending order of prestige, they are the Cup, whose winner is the overall tournament champion, Plate, Bowl and Shield. In Hong Kong, the Shield is not awarded. Each trophy is awarded at the end of a knockout tournament.[4]

In a 16 team tournament, the top two teams in each pool advance to the Cup competition. The four quarterfinal losers drop into the bracket for the Plate. The Bowl is contested by the third-place finishers in each pool, while the Shield is contested by the last-place teams from each pool.[5] In Hong Kong, the six pool winners, plus the two highest-finishing second-place teams, advance to the Cup. The Plate participants are the eight highest-ranked teams remaining, while the lowest eight drop to the Bowl.[6]

Final standings

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The points awarded to teams at each event, as well as the overall season totals, are shown in the table below. Points for the event winners are indicated in bold. A zero (0) is recorded in the event column where a team competed in a tournament but did not gain any points. A dash (–) is recorded in the event column if a team did not compete at a tournament.

2008–09 IRB Sevens – Series X [7]
 
Pos.
Event 
Team
 
Dubai
 
George
 
Well­ing­ton
 
San Diego
 
Hong Kong
 
Adel­aide
 
Lon­don
 
Edin­burgh
Points
total
   
1   South Africa 20 20 8 12 24 20 12 16 132
2   Fiji 12 12 4 4 30 12 8 20 102
3   England 16 8 20 16 8 8 20 2 98
4   New Zealand 12 16 16 8 8 4 16 8 88
5   Argentina 4 12 12 20 8 12 0 0 68
6   Kenya 6 0 12 6 18 16 2 4 64
7   Samoa 8 4 0 4 18 2 0 4 40
8   Australia 4 0 0 2 8 6 4 6 30
9=   Scotland 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 12 24
9=   Wales 0 0 6 0 2 4 0 12 24
11   United States 0 4 4 12 0 0 0 0 20
12   Portugal 2 6 - - 1 0 6 0 15
13   France 0 2 0 0 2 0 4 0 8
14   Tonga - - 0 - 4 0 - - 4
15   Canada - - 0 0 3 - 0 0 3
16   Cook Islands - - 2 - - 0 - - 2
N/A   Zimbabwe 0 0 - - 0 - - - 0
  Japan - - - 0 0 0 - - 0
  Arabian Gulf 0 - - - - - - - 0
  Georgia 0 0 - - - - 0 0 0
  Germany - - - - - - 0 - 0
  Niue - - 0 - - - - - 0
  Mexico - - - 0 - - - - 0
  Tunisia - 0 - - - - - - 0
  Uruguay - - - 0 0 - - - 0
  West Indies - - - - 0 - - - 0
  Hong Kong - - - - 0 - - - 0
  China - - - - 0 - - - 0
  Sri Lanka - - - - 0 - - - 0
  Chinese Taipei - - - - 0 - - - 0
  South Korea - - - - 0 - - - 0
  Spain - - - - - - - 0 0

Notes:
  Light blue line on the left indicates a core team eligible to participate in all events of the series.

Player statistics

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Most points

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Individual points [8]
Pos. Player Country Points
1 Ben Gollings   England 260
2 Collins Injera   Kenya 210
3 Richard Kingi   Australia 205
4 Renfred Dazel   South Africa 191
5 Lolo Lui   Samoa 187
6 Tomasi Cama   New Zealand 174
7 Pedro Leal   Portugal 168
8 Lavin Asego   Kenya 166
9 Paul Albaladejo   France 165
=10 Ollie Phillips   England 161
=10 Mzwandile Stick   South Africa 161

Most tries

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Individual tries [9]
Pos. Player Country Tries
1 Collins Injera   Kenya 42
2= Rayno Benjamin   South Africa 28
2= Santiago Gomez Cora   Argentina 28
4 Luke Morahan   Australia 27
5 Vereniki Goneva   Fiji 24
6 Ollie Phillips   England 23
7= Alafoti Fa'osiliva   Samoa 22
7= Renfred Dazel   South Africa 22
7= Robert Ebersohn   South Africa 22
7= Pio Tuwai   Fiji 22
7= Vuyo Zangqa   South Africa 22

Tournaments

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Dubai

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup   South Africa 19 – 12   England   New Zealand
  Fiji
Plate   Samoa 12 – 7   Kenya   Argentina
  Australia
Bowl   Portugal 24 – 0   France   Wales
  Zimbabwe
Shield   United States 31 – 7  Arabian Gulf   Georgia
  Scotland

South Africa

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup   South Africa 12 – 7   New Zealand   Argentina
  Fiji
Plate   England 24 – 7   Portugal   Samoa
  United States
Bowl   France 21 – 12   Australia   Kenya
  Wales
Shield   Zimbabwe 26 – 0   Scotland   Georgia
  Tunisia

New Zealand

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup   England 19 – 17   New Zealand   Argentina
  Kenya
Plate   South Africa 26 – 12   Wales   Fiji
  United States
Bowl   Cook Islands 24 – 10   Tonga   France
  Australia
Shield   Scotland 24 – 0   Niue   Samoa
  Canada

United States

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup   Argentina 19 – 14   England   South Africa
  United States
Plate   New Zealand 22 – 7   Kenya   Fiji
  Samoa
Bowl   Australia 40 – 0   France   Scotland
  Wales
Shield   Canada 31 – 7   Uruguay   Mexico
  Japan

Hong Kong

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists Quarter Finalists
Cup   Fiji 26 – 24   South Africa   Kenya
  Samoa
  England
  New Zealand
  Argentina
  Australia
Plate   Tonga 14 – 12   Canada   Wales
  France
  United States
  Hong Kong
  Scotland
  South Korea
Bowl   Portugal 14 – 12   Uruguay   Zimbabwe
  Japan
  Chinese Taipei
  West Indies
  China
  Sri Lanka

Australia

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup   South Africa 26 – 7   Kenya   Argentina
  Fiji
Plate   England 24 – 19   Australia   Wales
  New Zealand
Bowl   Samoa 35 – 14   France   Tonga
  Cook Islands
Shield   United States 24 – 21   Scotland   Japan
  Portugal

London

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup   England 31 – 26   New Zealand   Scotland
  South Africa
Plate   Fiji 24 – 10   Portugal   France
  Australia
Bowl   Kenya 12 – 7   Wales   Samoa
  Argentina
Shield   Canada 27 – 7   United States   Germany
  Georgia

Scotland

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup   Fiji 20 – 19   South Africa   Scotland
  Wales
Plate   New Zealand 34 – 12   Australia   Samoa
  Kenya
Bowl   England 26 – 15   France   Argentina
  Portugal
Shield   United States 12 – 10   Canada   Georgia
  Spain

References

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  1. ^ "IRB Sevens World Series 2008-09 (Referee) Selections" (PDF). International Rugby Board. 2008-09-01. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-05-19. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  2. ^ "Emirates unveils Dubai venue 'The Sevens'". International Rugby Board. 2008-07-02. Archived from the original on 2008-07-31. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  3. ^ a b "USA Rugby receives major Sevens boost" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 2008-09-22. Archived from the original on 2009-06-12. Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  4. ^ a b c "Rules". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 5 April 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2008.
  5. ^ a b "Rules: 16-Team Tournament". International Rugby Board. 2007. Archived from the original on 21 March 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2008.
  6. ^ "Rules: 24-Team Tournament". International Rugby Board. 2007. Archived from the original on 21 March 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2008.
  7. ^ "Overall Standings". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-07.
  8. ^ "Season Player Points". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-07.
  9. ^ "Season Player Tries". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 2008-04-09. Retrieved 2008-12-07.
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