Did you know that the Rugby Seven’s originated in Scotland?

We bet that you didn’t know that the world-famous Rugby Seven’s was conceptualised and formed in Melrose in Scotland, way back in 1883! Yet another brilliant Scottish invention!

At the time the Melrose Football Club was looking for ideas to help with funding for the club and its players and an enterprising young butcher’s assistant by the name of Ned Haig put forward the idea of a new game.

This game was to be exciting, very demanding and required supreme fitness, a switch up on the standard game of rugby. It would take the form of a one-day tournament and teams would comprise of only seven players on each side, and the match time would be limited to 15 minutes.

The very first tournament took place on 28th April 1883, and spectators came on train from the surrounding areas to cheer on the home team as they took on six other teams from nearby Scottish Border towns.

The ladies of Melrose clubbed together to design a special silver cup that would be awarded to the winning team, which of course in the inaugural match was Melrose itself. That trophy is still housed at Melrose, and bar breaks for the two World Wars, the game has continued to be played annually since its inception.

Over the next 10 years many more Scottish border clubs began to play the game too, and interclub competitions would draw huge crowds.

By 1926 the game had spread to England, and then quickly on to the English commonwealth countries of South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia, who were all eager adopters.

The first international games only took place in the 1970s, however the game took on new life in 1976 when Hong Kong Sevens were created.

Now seven a side rugby became a global sport, launching players like Jonah Lomu and Waisale Serevi, and allowing players from countries like Korea, Japan, Singapore, Tonga, and Thailand to compete against more established rugby nations.

The very first World Cup Sevens Tournament was held at Murrayfield in Edinburgh in April 1993 and has grown in popularity since then – it is now part of the Commonwealth Games and is an Olympic Sport, all this thanks to founders who got the ball rolling (so to speak!)

Today involvement continues to grow, interestingly enough in the USA, where rugby is said to be biggest growing sport. It’s estimated that more than a million people play rugby in some form at different levels (and one third of these are women), says the International Rugby Board.

Melrose is proud to be the home of the sevens game, its powerful heritage, and the way it has made its name in rugby history.

Heading to Melrose to visit the home of Rugby Sevens? Why not spend some time on one of our long walks while you’re here.

We’ll see you either at the stadium, or on the mountains, walkers!

The TWC Team