Villager Schools Sevens

Sponsored by Sportsmans Warehouse
On Friday 31st August, twenty Southern Suburbs schools took part in South Africa’s founding Schools Sevens Rugby Tournament, first played in 1969 at the Villager Brookside Club.

About the Sevens Tournament on 31st August

The Villager Sevens Rugby Tournament is set to work its magic once again this year. The magic will include a modernising of the event in line with the international Club Sevens format. This has proved extremely popular and is very successfully applied in most world Sevens rugby events.

At the end of August, twenty Southern Suburbs schools will take part in South Africa’s founding Schools Sevens Rugby Tournament, which is the oldest in this country, first played in 1969 at the Villager Brookside Club.

The Villager Sevens has always taken place on the first Friday after the last of the rugby matches for the Cape schools. This ensures that all the school’s sevens players are firing at peak fitness and ready to compete and enjoy in the year’s final rugby event.

This tournament has seen many spectacular rugby games over the years and has grown into one of the most popular events on the Schools Sport and social Calendar.

Times change of course and 2007 will now see a change to the competition rules – called for by spectators and requested by many schools who thought that the evening could be engineered  into a shorter and more compact event, which will without doubt  improve the fun and entertainment for the teams and spectators alike.

Changes for 2007

As a result of wanting to speed up the tempo of this tournament, the new “games” format now rotates around five separate rounds, on a knock out basis, that will start at 14h20pm and end at 20h00pm. The beauty of this new system is that all the games are now going to be played on the same Villager Stadium field and spectators will be able to enjoy the whole tournament, without moving from their seats. In addition to this, all teams now compete in the same draw, for the “VILLAGER 7’S TROPHY.” At the end of the event, the winning school will have its name engraved on the trophy!

A benefit of this new format is that, gone is the need for spectators to walk between three different fields in order to see the match of their choice. All the matches now come to the spectators! The need for two “separate” competitions, as in the past, now falls away.

All matches will be played on the Stadium Field. This offers plenty of viewing space for spectators in front of the surrounding buildings, as well as on the Grass embankment. With all matches taking place on one field, the team support will be more vocal and the atmosphere will be much more exciting. The event has been shortened and will kick off at 14:20 pm and the tournament will end at 20h00pm, after the “Final Match“, and a brief prize giving event on the field at 20:00pm.

Some more Details and Highlights

A great deal of work, planning and development has been put into turning the Villagers 7’s into the finest Schools Sevens Tournaments in the Cape. The event is sponsored once again by Sportsman’s Warehouse, as it has been from inception. Here’s a sample of some of the evening’s highlights, besides the Rugby games.
 
• Music throughout the tournament, hundreds of give-aways and hamper prizes.
• A “Food Court” area, competitions, Stadium Mascot & “Player of the match” awards.
• The “Best Banner” brought to the Stadium will receive a prize.
• Spectators will also walk off with valuable prizes, throughout the evening.
• Many lucky spectators will each receive a give-away item upon entering the grounds.
• The program is now a Collector’s Booklet for spectators & players to keep.

We have ensured that ample security will be in place and secure parking is provided.

The printed program will be informative, including comprehensive articles on the venue, matches to be played, schools taking part, names of the players, history of the Tournament, names of previous winners and a map of the Grounds. A photographer will also be on the premises to catch all the action, and pictures will be sent to schools afterwards and photographs will be printed in next years program. 

Food and refreshments will be provided at a designated “FOOD COURT” area, overlooking the field. This will include numerous food outlets, including pizzas, burgers, slap chips and many others as well as cold drinks. The large Villager Rugby bar is also open – but is restricted to over 18’s.

Selecting a Province School’s Sevens Team

Mr. Anton Moolman is the current coach of the Western Province Sevens Senior Team.  Anton has confirmed his full support for this new event, and will be observing all the games during the tournament.

Anton has confirmed that he will select a combined Schools Sevens Team from all the talented players on show during the evening. 

This “School Sevens Representative Team“, will be announced after the event and the ten names of the players will be displayed on Rugby websites Rugby365 and Ou Grote.  

Subsequently, each of these 10 selected players will be acknowledged with a Special Villager 2007 Sevens Medal.

Schools that have been invited

The competition includes predominantly southern suburb schools, and all the teams which played last year are again invited for 2007, to enjoy the opportunity of playing under the new match format. These young school rugby stars are some of the future talent of the Sevens game in Western Province and South Africa.  

This year, we are pleased to invite 20 Schools. Each school will enter their top side. This will raise the quality of the matches played, as well as the enjoyment of the spectators. Teams will now surely have to play their hearts out from their first match, in order to make it to the Final.

The 20 schools invited to date are:

Bergvliet
Bishops
Fish Hoek
Groote Schuur
Jan Van Riebeeck
Lagunya
Muizenberg
Northerns
Pinelands
Plumstead
Primrose
Reddam
Rondebosch
SACS
Table View
Temperance
Tygerberg
Violets
Voortrekker
Wynberg

The Sponsor for the Tournament

Sportsman’s Warehouse is once again the Principle Sponsor and we welcome their very professional involvement.  SWH are members of our organizing team as well.

Event Management Committee for 2007

Miles O’Brien – Sevens Event Director (miles@jordan.co.za)
Nicholas Bryant – Sevens Event Manager (nick@greenaways.co.za)
Charles Sanderhoff – Villager Club Manager (villager@mweb.co.za)
Marlene Marais – Marketing Manager Sportsmans Warehouse
Gary Grant – Sevens Committee

LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THERE

Please come and support this brilliant version of quick, skillful rugby as schools from around Cape Town compete on the battlefield at Brookside.

Previous Winners

69 – Wynberg  
70 – Rondebosch  
71 – Plumstead  
72 – Rondebosch   
73 – SACS   
74 – Wynberg  
75 – Rondebosch  
76 – Bishops  
77 – Rondebosch  
78 – Bishops   
79 – Bishops     
80 – Plumstead     
81 – Bishops      
82 – Bishops   
83 – Bishops
84 – Rondebosch 
85 – Bishops 
86 – Bishops
87 – Bishops 
88 – Bishops
89 – Bishops
90 – Wynberg
91 – Rondebosch
92 – Bishops
93 – Bishops 
94 – Wynberg
95 – Kings College NZ
96 – Bishops
97 – Northerns
98 – SACS
99 – Bishops
00 – Rondebosch
01 – Rondebosch 
02 – Bishops 
03 – Bishops
04 – Tygerberg
05 – Bishops
06 – Bishops

Wins: Bishops – 19, Rondebosch – 8, Wynberg – 4, SACS – 2, Plumstead – 2, Tygerberg – 1, Northerns -1, Kings College NZ – 1

Miles O’Brien – Seven’s  Director  (miles@jordan.co.za)
Nicholas Bryant – Sevens Manager (nick@greenaways.co.za)