The men's rugby sevens tournament at the 2016 Summer Olympics was held in Brazil. It was hosted at the Deodoro Stadium, a temporary outdoor stadium constructed as part of the DeodoroModern Pentathlon Park in Rio de Janeiro. The tournament was held from 9 August to 11 August 2016, starting with group matches before finishing with the medal ceremony on 11 August. The 2016 Games marked the first time that rugby sevens has been played at the Olympics, and the first time since 1924 that any form of rugby had been played at the Olympics.
The gold medal for Fiji represented the first Olympic medal earned by Fiji at any Olympics.[1][2][3] Great Britain won silver and South Africa defeated Japan to win the bronze medal.[4]
Qualification
With Brazil being the hosts, their team automatically qualified despite their sevens team not regularly appearing in the World Rugby Sevens Series. The 2014–15 Sevens World Series was the initial stage of qualification, with the top 4 teams at the end of the series gaining qualification to the 2016 Olympic Games. Between June and September 2015, each of the six regional rugby unions held an Olympic qualification event, where one team from each region qualified, bringing the total up to 11 teams qualified. The final spot was determined by a repechage tournament held in Monaco, where the winner of that event became the final team to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games.
As a result of England finishing fourth in the 2014–15 Sevens World Series, Great Britain were awarded a spot in the Olympic Games, despite the other nations failing to qualify in the top 4. This is because Great Britain compete as one union in the Olympics and as several in international rugby (Rugby Football Union for England, Welsh Rugby Union, Scottish Rugby Union and the combined Irish Rugby Football Union for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland), which meant should one of either the England, Wales or Scotland teams qualify, then Great Britain would be awarded a spot in the Olympic Games. It was decided players based in Northern Ireland were not eligible to represent Great Britain in the rugby sevens tournament as these players represent the IRFU, and the union demanded that Northern Irish players that have committed to play for the Irish rugby union, only play for Ireland despite being eligible under IOC rules to compete for Great Britain.[5][6][7] The three remaining unions agreed in advance of the 2013–14 Sevens World Series that their highest-finishing teams in that season would represent all three unions in the first stage of qualification.
The draw for the tournament took place on 28 June 2016. The 12 teams were seeded based on their points they have accumulated over the past two seasons on the Sevens Series circuit. The four teams that qualified directly from the 2014–15 Sevens World Series were guaranteed a top four seeding, with their positioning determined by their combined score over the two seasons.[8][9]
The men's rugby tournament takes place over three days:[10]
Date
Event
August 9
12 group play matches
August 10
6 group play matches Quarterfinals
August 11
Semifinals Final and bronze matches Medal ceremony
Match officials
World Rugby announced a panel of twelve match officials on 11 April 2016 for the men's sevens.[11][12] Two Brazilians were later added as assistant referees.
In pool play, each team plays one match against the other three teams in the group. Three points are awarded for a win, two points - for a draw, and one point - for a loss.[13]
Group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals. Third place teams drop to a third-placed teams table, where the top two third placed teams advance to the quarter-finals. Rankings are based on competition points; if teams are tied, the next tiebreaker is points difference.[8][13]
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