Dubai Women's Sevens

The Dubai Women's Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament held in Dubai, UAE. The tournament includes several competitions including, since 1994,[1] an international women's invitational competition. Though most entrants are ad hoc sides composed of club and international players from a variety of (generally European) countries, some are official national selections - the results of matches between such sides appear below.

The first Dubai women's sevens competition was held in 1994, where it was won by Kuwait who defeated the Royal Hong Kong Police in the final.[2] Until the 2007 edition was held at the Dubai Exiles Rugby Ground, in 2008 it moved to The Sevens, a new stadium built to host the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens.[3] The 2009 competition took place between 3–5 December.

In 2011, a new competition was launched by International Rugby Board (IRB) - the IRB Women's Challenge Cup - as a first step towards a full schedule of IRB-sponsored women's sevens events for 2012–13 season. It featured eight official national teams. The traditional international women's invitational competition also took place on neighbouring pitches.

On 4 October 2012, the IRB announced the launch of the IRB Women's Sevens World Series for the 2012–13 season. The Dubai competition will be the first of four events in the inaugural season.[4]

  1. ^ "Women's Sevens heaven". 22 November 1994.
  2. ^ Post Magazine (15 August 2017). "Her mum played in Hong Kong's first women's touring side and now Kelsie Bouttle is creating her own rugby history at the World Cup". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
  3. ^ "Emirates unveils Dubai venue 'The Sevens'". International Rugby Board. 2 July 2008. Archived from the original on 31 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  4. ^ "IRB announces Women's Sevens World Series" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 4 October 2012. Archived from the original on 19 October 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2012.