Rugby Sevens go west as Glasgow wins right to host World Series leg

GLASGOW is to be named as the host venue for next season’s penultimate leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series, after prising the event away from Edinburgh.

The Scotland leg of the series has always been staged at Murrayfield, despite a strong lobby to opt for the birthplace of sevens rugby, the Greenyards in Melrose. Now it will travel west on a three-year contract.

The Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens, however, have never attracted the large crowds that such an event both warrants and requires, and compares unfavourably with the record numbers coming through the Twickenham turnstiles.

The venue for the Glasgow tournament will be at Scotstoun, soon to be the new home of Glasgow Warriors. There were concerns about the suitability of the stadium for spectators, because Scotstoun is primarily an athletics stadium housing an eight-lane tracks which keeps fans are some distance from the pitch. However, the capacity of the stadium is expected to be increased to 15,000 with the use of temporary grandstands on the running track. Glasgow City Council have fought hard to win the right to host the tournament, which at one stage was feared could be lost to Scotland, and the IRB and SRU have been impressed by what the city has to offer.

The hosting of the event – expected to be confirmed next week – is a perfect opportunity to build an audience for rugby sevens, which will be one of the high-profile sports in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. At the same time, the switch is a blow to Edinburgh’s economy.

Mark Dodson, the new chief executive of the Scottish Rugby Union, said last month that he is keen to promote Scotland as the home of sevens – similar in a way to how St Andrews is known as the home of golf.

“This is the home of sevens and we don’t do enough with that in my view,” said Dodson. “We have to sell that more and more. It is part of our heritage but is a part that we fail to exploit and that’s something we need to address.

“We are keen to make sure we have a good performance in the Commonwealth Games [where sevens rugby is a key sport]. We have launched the first professional full-time squad and they went out to Spain recently for a tournament to prepare for the world series because we’re trying to develop them.

“I believe that will help to raise the profile of sevens across the country and we are committed to making sure sevens works for us.”

It is not just venues that are changing next season. Speaking at the launch of the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens, the IRB tournament manager Beth Coalter announced that next season would see the first women’s World Series.

Coalter also confirmed that next season the World Series will be extended to ten tournaments, played as five pairs of two, starting in October on Australia’s Gold Coast and finishing in May at Twickenham.