Amsterdam Women's Sevens

rdf:langString Amsterdam Women's Sevens

rdf:langString The Amsterdam Women's Sevens began in 2005. On 4 October 2012, the IRB announced the launch of the IRB Women's Sevens World Series, the women's counterpart to the wildly successful IRB Sevens World Series for men. The inaugural 2012–13 season featured four events, with the Amsterdam Sevens as the final event in May 2013. The 2014–15 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series was the last series to feature Amsterdam as an event. Rugby Union Sevens - a short form of the sport of rugby union - was first played in 1883, with the first (men's) internationals taking place in 1973. As women's rugby union developed in the 1960s and 1970s the format became very popular as it allowed games, and entire leagues, to be developed in countries even when player numbers were small, and it remains the main form the women's game is played in most parts of the world. However, although the first Women's international rugby union 15-a-side test match took place in 1982, it was not until 1997 before the first Women's International Rugby Union Sevens tournaments were played, when the Hong Kong Sevens included a women's tournament for the first time. Over the next decade the number of tournaments grew, with almost every region developing regular championship. This reached its zenith with 2009's inaugural women's tournament for the Rugby World Cup Sevens, shortly followed by the announcement that women's rugby sevens will be included in the Olympics from 2016. The Amsterdam Sevens began in 1972, but did not include an international women's tournament until 2005. The following are details of all Amsterdam women's international tournaments, listed chronologically with the earliest first, with all result details, where known. NOTE: New Zealand Wild Ducks and Aotearoa Maori New Zealand. Prior to the early 2000s, the NZRFU would not condone or send any official team, but an invitation team made up largely of Black Ferns and upcoming talented players did go to the HKG 7s each year in the late nineties from the inception of the HKG tournament. This team was named the Wild Ducks. It had no official status whatsoever, and the matches it played cannot be considered official internationals. The first official NZ team took part in 2000 and 2001, but from 2002 onwards the NZRFU again declined to send a team, whereby interested women's rugby officials from the Bay of Plenty in particular received the union's blessing to send a Maori team "Aotearoa" to HKG. For the first couple of years this team was pretty much strictly Maori in its makeup. However, for the later tournaments Black Ferns and upcoming players of any ethnicity were selected. It is not an official team and its matches should not be considered internationals but it has the union's blessing to compete in international tournaments.