Paris Sevens venue Stade Jean-Bouin.

The France Sevens, also called the Paris Sevens, is an annual international rugby sevens tournament that is one of ten competitions on the annual World Rugby Sevens Series. The France Sevens is generally held in May or June on the weekend following the London Sevens and is the last competition in the Sevens Series. France has also hosted tournaments within the European Sevens Grand Prix Series, often at Lyon.

History

France hosted its first International Sevens tournament at Melun, in the outskirts of Paris, in May 1995.

The 16 team tournament, culminated in a repeat of the pool game between England and France.

Winners of the previous day's clash, a very strong England side captained by Rob Kitchen, took the lead with two tries by player of the tournament Gerry Ainscough, both of which he converted.

Captained by Alain Penaud and including a number of other players with full caps, France recovered and snatched a 21 - 14 victory in the dying minutes of a very high quality game.

From 1996 to 1999 the tournament was known as the Air France Sevens, and in the year 2000 it was part of the inaugural IRB Sevens World Series.

The IRB hosted the tournament at Bordeaux in 2004, before returning to Paris for 2005 and 2006. The event was effectively replaced in the World Sevens Series by the Scotland Sevens at Edinburgh for the 2006-07 season.

Between 2011 and 2015, Lyon hosted a leg of the European circuit, the Sevens Grand Prix Series.

The Sevens World Series returned to France for the 2015–16 season, with the revival of the Paris Sevens tournament in 2016.

International sevens

Invitational tournament

YearVenueCup finalPlacingsRefs
WinnerScoreRunner-upPlateBowlShield
1996Sébastien Charléty ParisFiji38–19FranceRomaniaRussian/a
1997Sébastien Charléty ParisFiji13–7New ZealandFrench BarbariansGermanyn/a
1998Sébastien Charléty ParisAustralia33–26New ZealandSouth American BarbariansJapann/a
1999Sébastien Charléty ParisNew Zealand36–26FranceFrench BarbariansAustralian/a

World Rugby Sevens Series

YearVenueCup finalPlacingsRefs
WinnerScoreRunner-upPlateBowlShield
2000Sébastien Charléty ParisNew Zealand69–10South AfricaFijiSamoan/a
No tournament in the World Series for men's teams played in France from 2001 to 2003
2004Chaban-Delmas BordeauxNew Zealand28–19EnglandArgentinaFranceSpain
2005Stade Jean-Bouin ParisFrance28–19FijiSouth AfricaArgentinaCanada
2006Sébastien Charléty ParisSouth Africa33–12SamoaFijiKenyaScotland
No tournament in the World Series for men's teams played in France from 2007 to 2015
2016Stade Jean-Bouin ParisSamoa29–26FijiSouth AfricaScotlandPortugal
WinnerScoreRunner-upThirdFourthFifth
2017Stade Jean-Bouin ParisSouth Africa15–5ScotlandNew ZealandEnglandUnited States
2018Stade Jean-Bouin ParisSouth Africa24–14EnglandNew ZealandCanadaFiji
2019Stade Jean-Bouin ParisFiji35–24New ZealandSouth AfricaUnited StatesFrance
World Series tournaments planned for Paris were cancelled in 2020 and 2021, due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2022Stade Ernest-Wallon ToulouseFiji29–17IrelandFranceSamoaArgentina
2023Stade Ernest-Wallon, ToulouseNew Zealand24–19ArgentinaFranceCanadaAustralia

European Grand Prix

In most years since 2011, France has hosted a leg of the Sevens Grand Prix Series, a multi-leg competition sponsored by Rugby Europe every summer involving teams from Europe.

YearVenueCup finalPlacingsRefs
Lyon SevensWinnerScoreRunner-upThirdFourthFifth
2011Matmut Stadium LyonEngland28–14SpainFrancePortugalRussia
2012Matmut Stadium LyonEngland26–14PortugalSpainWalesRussia
2013Matmut Stadium LyonEngland33–5RussiaFranceWalesPortugal
2014Matmut Stadium LyonFrance40–10BelgiumSpainRussian/a
2015Matmut Stadium LyonFrance20–7SpainBelgiumGermanyEngland
2016No Grand Prix Series event hosted in France for 2016
2017Gabriel Montpied ClermontIreland17–14RussiaSpainGermanyWales
2018MarcoussisIreland49–7GermanyEnglandRussiaPortugal

See also