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HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
JACK MEGAW/USA SEVENS (PLAYERS); JOHN C. GANNON (FANS)
the fan
Combine American football and the 100-meter dash, pump up
the adrenaline level, throw in a couple of Elvis costumes—and you have
one of the world’s fastest-growing sports
BY LARRYOLMSTED
AN IMPERIAL STORMTROOPER
accompanying Darth
Vader along the sidewalk barely gets a second glance.
The same goes for the photo-op guys dressed as Trans-
formers, Hello Kitty and Super Mario Brothers. But
when a gray-haired couple strolls down Las Vegas Bou-
levard in matching Scotland team jerseys
and kilts, heads turn. It canmean only
one thing: Sevens is back in town.
A supercharged spin-off of
conventional rugby, Rugby
Sevens has emergedas one
of the world’s fastest-
growing sports. This
is partly because of the pre- and post-match excess—
Sevens is as much a carnival as it is a spectator sport—
and partly because the game itself is such a whirl.
With teams of seven on a field scaled for twice as
many players, Sevens is a blur of hyperactivity and
over-the-top athleticism. At last year’s Las
Vegas event (the only international
men’s Sevens tournament in the
U.S.), players scored on average
every 79 seconds.
In traditional rugby,
each team has 15 play-
ers, most of
Sevens Heaven
MUSCLING IN
Jack Halalilo makes
a run for it during a U.S.–Australia
showdown in HSBC Sevens World
Series action in Las Vegas last year
