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Rugby sevens, also known as seven-a-side, Sevens or VIIs, is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players, instead of the usual 15, with shorter matches. Rugby sevens is administered by World Rugby (WR), the body responsible for rugby union worldwide. The game originated in Melrose where the Melrose Sevens tournament is still played annually. The game is popular at all levels, with amateur and club tournaments generally held in the summer months. Sevens is one of the most well distributed forms of rugby, and is popular in parts of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, and especially in the South Pacific.〔(The Spread of the Sevens ), Melrose Sevens official site, retrieved 25 February 2010〕 Notable international competitions include the HSBC Sevens World Series and the Rugby World Cup Sevens. Rugby sevens is also played at some multi-sport events such as the Commonwealth Games, taking place five times (1998: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 2002: Manchester, England; 2006: Melbourne, Australia; 2010: Delhi, India; and 2014: Glasgow, Scotland), Until 2014 the gold medal had been won by New Zealand but in 2014 it was won by South Africa. Rugby sevens is now recognised as an Olympic sport and will make its debut in the 2016 Summer Olympics. This follows a vote by the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to include the sport. That decision was backed at the 121st International Olympic Committee Session in Copenhagen on 9 October 2009.〔 〕 ==Overview== Rugby sevens is sanctioned by World Rugby, and is played under substantially the same laws (with exceptions noted below) and on a field of the same dimensions as the 15-player game. While a regular rugby union match lasts at least 80 minutes, a normal sevens match consists of two halves of seven minutes with a one-minute half-time break. The final of a competition can be played over two halves of ten minutes each, with a half-time break of two minutes. (In the HSBC Sevens World Series, only the Cup final, which determines the overall winner of an event, is played with 10-minute halves; all finals for lower-level trophies are played with 7-minute halves.) Sevens scores are generally comparable to regular rugby scores; scoring occurs much more frequently in sevens, since the defenders are more spaced out. The shorter match length allows rugby sevens tournaments to be completed in a day or a weekend. Many sevens tournaments have a competition for a cup, a plate, a bowl, and a shield, allowing many teams of different standards to avoid leaving empty handed. Sevens tournaments are traditionally known for having more of a relaxed atmosphere than fifteen-a-side games, and are often known as "festivals". As ''The Encyclopedia of Rugby Union Football'' (1976) puts it, they gained their "popularity as an end of season diversion from the dourer and sterner stuff that provides the bulk of a normal season's watching."〔Jones, p. 122〕 Fans frequently attend in fancy dress, and entertainment is put on for them. The Hong Kong Sevens tournament has been especially important in popularising the game in Asia, and rugby sevens has been important as a form of international rugby "evangelism", hence is perhaps the most widely played form of the game, with tournaments in places as far apart as Bogota and Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Kenya, Singapore and Scandinavia, as well as the countries in which rugby union is well known.〔Bath (1997), p29〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rugby sevens」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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