England playing Spain at the 2008 London Sevens,

The London Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament held at Twickenham Stadium in London. It is part of the World Rugby Sevens Series. London was added to the World Series for the first time in 2001. For many years the London Sevens was the last tournament of each season but the Paris Sevens became the last stop on the calendar in 2018. The current titleholder of the London Sevens are Australia, who beat New Zealand in the 2022 final.

The London Sevens is one of the more popular stops on the World Series. The 2011 London Sevens set a single-day attendance record of over 54,000 fans, surpassing the attendance record set by the Dubai Sevens. The tournament has also drawn over 100,000 fans over the course of the weekend, making it one of the largest attended recurring events on the Twickenham stadium calendar.

2013 qualifier

Uniquely, the 2013 edition was not only the final event in the series, but also incorporated the World Series Core Team Qualifier. In Sevens Series terminology, "core teams" are those that are guaranteed a place in all series events in a given season. Unlike all other series events, the 2013 London Sevens had only 12 teams competing for series points, namely the top 12 core teams on the season points table following the season's penultimate tournament, the Scotland Sevens. The Core Team Qualifier involved eight teams—the winner of the HSBC Asian Sevens Series; four teams advancing from the World Series Pre-Qualifier, held as part of the Hong Kong Sevens; and the three core teams at the bottom of the season table after the Scotland Sevens. The top three teams at the end of the Core Team Qualifier became core teams for the next season.

World Rugby, then known as the International Rugby Board, chose to change its core team qualifying process in advance of the 2013–14 series, reducing the number of promotion/relegation places from three to one, and also using only the Hong Kong Sevens for the core team qualifier. Accordingly, the London Sevens returned to its traditional 16-team format from 2014 forward.

Results by year

YearVenueCup finalPlacings
WinnerScoreRunner-upPlateBowlShield
2001TwickenhamNew Zealand19–12AustraliaSouth AfricaWales
2002TwickenhamNew Zealand54–14South AfricaAustraliaFranceGeorgia
2003TwickenhamEngland31–24FijiAustraliaSamoaArgentina
2004TwickenhamEngland22–19New ZealandSouth AfricaFrancePortugal
2005TwickenhamSouth Africa21–12EnglandFijiSamoaCanada
2006TwickenhamFiji54–14South AfricaAustraliaPortugalItaly
2007TwickenhamNew Zealand29–7FijiSouth AfricaEnglandKenya
2008TwickenhamSamoa19–14FijiNew ZealandAustraliaSpain
2009TwickenhamEngland26–7New ZealandFijiKenyaCanada
2010TwickenhamAustralia19–14South AfricaNew ZealandCanadaKenya
2011TwickenhamSouth Africa24–14FijiSamoaScotlandEngland
2012TwickenhamFiji38–15SamoaNew ZealandAustraliaWales
2013TwickenhamNew Zealand47–12AustraliaEnglandFijiWales
2014TwickenhamNew Zealand52–33AustraliaSouth AfricaCanadaUnited States
2015TwickenhamUnited States45–22AustraliaNew ZealandKenyaJapan
2016TwickenhamScotland27–26South AfricaNew ZealandWalesKenya
WinnerScoreRunner-upThirdFourthFifth
2017TwickenhamScotland12–7EnglandCanadaUnited StatesSouth Africa
2018TwickenhamFiji21–17South AfricaIrelandEnglandNew Zealand
2019TwickenhamFiji43–7AustraliaUnited StatesFranceNew Zealand
World Series tournaments planned for London were cancelled in 2020 and 2021, due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2022TwickenhamAustralia19–14 (a.e.t.)New ZealandFijiSamoaSouth Africa
2023TwickenhamArgentina35–14FijiSamoaNew ZealandFrance

Multiple winners

The teams that have won the tournament, as part of the World Rugby Sevens Series, on multiple occasions are:

TeamTitlesYears
New Zealand52001, 2002, 2007, 2013, 2014
Fiji42006, 2012, 2018, 2019
England32003, 2004, 2009
Australia22010, 2022
Scotland22016, 2017
South Africa22005, 2011

See also

External links