Sevens is a bridge between cultures. It’s saying ‘hello’ or ‘thank you’ in four languages I don’t speak, picking the game apart over a beer with a coach I’ve just met, feeling the pain when a player gets injured.
Sevens is a vehicle for lives to change, for people to dream big. Where a Thalia Costa, from the northern reaches of Brazil, can go toe-to-toe with a Stacey Waaka, from rural New Zealand. Or where France and Argentina can run each other ragged for 14 minutes, then shake hands afterwards.
It’s a pathway. I wish more national unions would see that. It drives eyeballs to rugby, develops stars, helps young players learn the rigours of the professional game, of touring life and everything that means.
Not every player has to come through a club academy to forge an international career… just look at Leroy Carter. Sevens fans knew about him before New Zealand Rugby realised what a gem they had.
It’s when the stadium wakes up and the lights flicker on, when the energy rises and the rollercoaster 14 minutes begins, and begins and begins.
And then it’s when the exhaustion kicks in for everyone involved but we still get to say, “see you in Cape Town.” Or Perth. Or Hong Kong. Or Singapore, New York, Vancouver, or Bordeaux.
In Dubai, weekend warriors across multiple sports, rising rugby stars and the game’s top pros come together for a full-on festival. Only at the sevens will Shaggy and Sean Paul collide with padel, fitness games and netball, where people are willing to get in a pool with god knows who — and what — in it, all while Maddison Levi wows us again on the main pitch.
Cape Town is where the true rugby maniacs are; Perth is where the population has embraced something new; Vancouver wins the costume game while fuelling a Canadian rugby programme that has their women’s programme thriving.
Hong Kong stands alone, as good as ever, new stadium and all. Singapore is more serene, and USA does things in a way only America can. Sevens is taking over the Big Apple this season, but just as importantly it’s going back to France, where rugby fandom is most unique; and emerging rugby nation Spain.
But, more than all the places, it’s the people who make the HSBC SVNS circus special. Some of them, most fans will never know, like my friends Alex Morrison and Lucy Clarke, who, over the last four years, managed the entire broadcast of the series down to where the commentators can get a cup of tea on game day.
They’ve moved on, the game has changed, but the memories remain.
Imagine what a sevens weekend is like for Scott Bowen, team manager for Australia — the men’s AND women’s sides — looking after the needs of both squads in a constant treadmill of kick-off times, bus arrivals, bananas and water.
Imagine the feeling of those wide-eyed rookies rolling into Dubai for the first time this week or for the coaches, under constant pressure to deliver in the desert, getting ready to go again.
Sevens is meeting Abbie Brown’s mum and dad, and Hayden Sergeant’s nana. It’s knowing that, when my back went and the New Zealand physio helped me out with treatment, that I could also have dropped an SOS to six other teams for help.
It’s incredible young athletes pushing themselves to the limit game after game, weekend after weekend, striving to be great for our viewing pleasure.
Sometimes we talk about our work life as ‘a family’ but I prefer to think of it more as a community. Sevens is that.
It’s a lot of random people who’ve found themselves together, connected by one thing, meeting up every so often, with the ups and downs that a neighbourhood or community go through, all while letting the world peek over the fence to watch the drama unfold.
How can you not be entertained?
People have come and gone, the series has changed and the sport is facing numerous challenges but the spirit of sevens remains … we sometimes just have to remember to see it.