OPINION: Sevens rugby struggling to stay relevant

Remember the days when Sevens weekends brought in thousands of fans and tickets were as scarce as hen’s teeth?

Now, if you have a little bit of time on your hands, you can just about count the number of fans in the stands.

Sevens rugby is in decline.

Remember the time when some suggested Sevens would eventually become bigger than the XV-man game.

The shortest format of rugby fought long and hard to be included in the Olympics and it duly made its bow in 2016 in Rio.

The world series for years introduced smaller nations to the game of rugby and it was always interesting to see the likes of Russia, Chile, Uganda, Spain, Germany and many other tier two and three nations strut their stuff.

A women’s Sevens series was also introduced and over the years there have been Sevens World Cups.

In decline?

At the height of the Sevens game, players were household names and matches and results were closely followed. Some of this country’s brightest Test players all featured at some stage in Sevens, among them Cheslin Kolbe, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Kwagga Smith.

But it now seems tinkering by World Rugby to change the old format of the world series and include only eight teams in a shortened schedule, with less tournaments, has hurt the game more than anyone could have imagined.

A look at the stands in the tournaments so far this season, in Dubai, Cape Town, Singapore and Perth, indicates a drop in interest by the fans.

Where just a few years ago you couldn’t get a ticket to the weekend’s action, there are now hundreds if not thousands of empty seats in the stands.

The vibe, and what was once considered rugby’s biggest party, also appears to be on the wane.

It will be interesting to see how many fans turn up at the “home” of the Sevens game, the Hong Kong Sevens, in a few weeks’ time?

Questions need to be asked, such as: Is the quality still there? Are tournaments being held in the right countries? And, why call it SVNS?

Are we witnessing the slow death of the Sevens game … or is everything still hunky-dory?