Rugby Sevens is a curious version of the original, which isfeatured this weekend in the HSBC Sevens World Series Hong Kong. Rugby sevens (commonly known simply assevens) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven playersplaying seven minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40 minutehalves. Rugby sevens is administered by World Rugby, the body responsible forrugby union worldwide. The game is popular at all levels, with amateur and clubtournaments generally held in the summer months. Sevens is one of the most welldistributed forms of rugby, and is popular in parts of Africa, Asia, Europe,and the Americas, and especially in the South Pacific.
The World Rugby SevensSeries is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run byWorld Rugby featuring national sevens teams. The series, organized for thefirst time in the 1999–2000 season, was formed to develop an elite-levelcompetition series between rugby nations and develop the sevens game into aviable commercial product for World Rugby. The competition has been knownofficially as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series since 2014 due to sponsorshipfrom the banking group. The season'scircuit consists of 10 tournaments that generally begin in November or Decemberand last until May. The venues are held across 10 countries, and visits five ofthe six populated continents. The United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Australia,New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, France andEngland each host one event. Each tournament has 16 teams — 15 core teams thatparticipate in each tournament and one regional qualifier. The fans in Hong Kong are excitedly anticipating the actionthis weekend. It moves quickly, andattracts many of the best players in the world. It's expected that 120,000 people will once again pack-out the stadiumfor this year's event. There are 16countries battling this weekend. Fijihave triumphed in Hong Kong 17 times in total. New Zealand have won 11 titles,Australia have five, England four, Samoa three and the Barbarians andCantabrians have one win each. Hong Kong is a three-day event, unlike many others on theseries. Also, the Sevens tournaments foster a party atmosphere off the field,with people in fancy dress enjoying each other's company, and occasionallyturning toward the field when action attracts. With so many teams, and theentire tournament playing out in the one weekend, the social and sport aspectsoften share the stage. The top five inthe tournament include number one Fiji, which has won two of this year'stournaments, and then, in order, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and theUnited States. Saturday sees the third round of the Masters, one of the fourmajor golf tournaments of the year in Professional Golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April,the Masters is the first major of the year, and unlike the others, it is heldat the same location, Augusta National Golf Club, a private course in thesoutheastern United States, in the city of Augusta, Georgia. The Masters was started by noted amateurchampion Bobby Jones who, after his grand slam in 1930, acquired the formerplant nursery and co-designed Augusta National. It was first played in1934. It is a rare "unity"event, and is an official money event on the PGA Tour, the European Tour, andthe Japan Golf Tour. The field of players is smaller than those of the othermajor championships because it is an invitational event. Saturday, the course is expected to be muddy, as the chanceof rain is 100%, with rain and cold. PatrickReed shot a 6-under 66 in the second round Friday, moving to 9 under for theMasters and giving him a two-shot lead over Marc Leishman heading into what'sexpected to be a wet Saturday. Reedenters the weekend holding a two-stroke lead over Marc Leishman. That's goodnews, right? Well, not entirely. Since 2000, any player with a two- orthree-shot lead after 36 holes who has not yet won a major -- and Reed isseeking his first -- has not won the Masters. The only other major in which Reed has held a 36-hole lead was the 2015U.S. Open, when he was tied with Jordan Spieth at 5-under at Chambers Bay. Reedstumbled to a 6-over 76 on that Saturday and ended up finishing tied for 14th. Spieth may very well surge, as he is ratherexpected to do from second place, HenrikStenson is currently third, four shots behind. Tiger Woods is considered to have no chance. He trails Reed by 13 shots. -- Posted By Rex to SR at 4/07/2018 01:16:00 AM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to omnisport+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to omnisport@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/omnisport. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
