New Zealand Sevens (tournament)

The New Zealand Sevens was an annual rugby sevens tournament held at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton, New Zealand. For the first eighteen years of its history the event was held in Wellington. The event was the third on the World Rugby Sevens Series circuit and is generally held in late January or early February.

WWW Official Site FB nzsevens

History

Wellington

Wellington first hosted a tournament in 2000 as part of the inaugural Sevens World Series. The event was the first to be held in the newly-developed Westpac Stadium. The tournament built a reputation for a party atmosphere, with a large proportion of attendees choosing to wear fancy dress. Movie figures such as the Men in Black and Austin Powers were crowd favorites and an impersonator of Austin Powers was a regular for many years performing for the crowd. Host team New Zealand dominated the sevens competition in Wellington, winning just over half of all the tournaments held.

Hamilton

The location of the tournament was moved to Hamilton in 2018, after attendances in Wellington had declined. The tournament was hosted as part of an integrated men's and women's event from 2019. Discussion was also begun on alternating the host location of the tournament between Hamilton and Suva, in Fiji, following the 2020 edition.