Sevens is a bridge between cultures. It\u2019s saying \u2018hello\u2019 or \u2018thank you\u2019 in four languages I don\u2019t speak, picking the game apart over a beer with a coach I\u2019ve just met, feeling the pain when a player gets injured.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not every player has to come through a club academy to forge an international career\u2026 just look at Leroy Carter. Sevens fans knew about him before New Zealand Rugby realised what a gem they had.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s when the stadium wakes up and the lights flicker on, when the energy rises and the rollercoaster 14 minutes begins, and begins and begins.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And then it\u2019s when the exhaustion kicks in for everyone involved but we still get to say, \u201csee you in Cape Town.\u201d Or Perth. Or Hong Kong. Or Singapore, New York, Vancouver, or Bordeaux.<\/p>\n
In Dubai, weekend warriors across multiple sports, rising rugby stars and the game\u2019s 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 \u2014 and what \u2014 in it, all while Maddison Levi wows us again on the main pitch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u2019s programme thriving.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u2019s going back to France, where rugby fandom is most unique; and emerging rugby nation Spain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, more than all the places, it\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve moved on, the game has changed, but the memories remain.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Imagine what a sevens weekend is like for Scott Bowen, team manager for Australia \u2014 the men\u2019s AND women\u2019s sides \u2014 looking after the needs of both squads in a constant treadmill of kick-off times, bus arrivals, bananas and water.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sevens is meeting Abbie Brown\u2019s mum and dad, and Hayden Sergeant\u2019s nana. It\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s incredible young athletes pushing themselves to the limit game after game, weekend after weekend, striving to be great for our viewing pleasure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sometimes we talk about our work life as \u2018a family\u2019 but I prefer to think of it more as a community. Sevens is that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lot of random people who\u2019ve 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How can you not be entertained?<\/p>\n
People have come and gone, the series has changed and the sport is facing numerous challenges but the spirit of sevens remains \u2026 we sometimes just have to remember to see it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sevens is a bridge between cultures. It\u2019s saying \u2018hello\u2019 or \u2018thank you\u2019 in four languages I don\u2019t speak,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-311926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}