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World Club 7s unveiled
Twickenham will host a World Club 7s tournament for the first time this August, with sides from Auckland to Los Angeles invited.
The new World Club 7s brings together, for the first time, some of the biggest names in club and provincial rugby from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, together with some of the emerging names in the 7s game.
The 12 teams competing in the inaugural tournament over 17 and 18 August 2013 at Twickenham Stadium will include the top English teams from this year's domestic Sevens Championship, who are expected to be joined by the likes of the Western Province from South Africa, Auckland Blues from New Zealand, the ACT Brumbies from Australia, and Buenos Aires of Argentina.
They will be joined by New York, Los Angeles and Moscow as the established and emerging rugby worlds meet.
The tournament is then set to expand further in 2014 and 2015 as Sevens Rugby heads towards its debut at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and will include the strongest club and provincial teams in the world qualifying through domestic 7s championships.
"Rugby is about to enter a unique era for the sport with Sevens - which is finally returning to the Olympics - at the centre of what we believe will be a huge growth in all forms of the game," said Premiership Rugby Chief Executive Mark McCafferty, who confirmed 12 teams will contest the inaugural tournament.
"Rugby's long-awaited return to the Olympics means that many of the players who could be battling it out for gold in Rio in 2016 will be on show at Twickenham on 17-18 August."
The vision for the World Club 7s will see teams from all over the world qualify for the tournament, but in the first year it will be an invitation event.
Read more: http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,2...698557,00.html
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I wonder what sort of teams the Australian premiership clubs could muster up at full strength?
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Cracking idea - now what about a world club 15s as well... Cott Vs Leicester final at Murrayfield.
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