‘Shameful' World Rugby dubbed ‘Machiavellian' as players blast sevens shake-up

Telegraph

02-05-2025

World Rugby has been blasted as 'shameful, unprofessional and Machiavellian' after the global governing body overhauled the world sevens series ahead of this weekend's tournament in Los Angeles.
It was confirmed on Thursday that an 'evolved', three-tier model would be implemented for the 2025-26 campaign in the lead-up to the 2028 Olympics with the aim to deliver 'long-term financial stability'.
Before the official announcement, however, USA player Stephen Tomasin released a video on Instagram claiming World Rugby were about to 'cut four teams off the bottom of the world series'.
This will take effect this weekend, when the top eight of the 12 teams on the current world series, set to form the top circuit in 2025-26, will compete in a tournament separate to those between ninth and 12th. The USA men's team is sitting 12th in the standings, so they will not feature in LA's main stadium and will be in the second division of the world series in 2025-26.
Mike Friday, a guru of the seven-a-side game who represented England as a player before coaching them, as well as Kenya and the USA, fired into decision-makers.
'Shameful, unprofessional and Machiavellian behaviour by those been (sic) given the responsibility to lead 7's at World Rugby,' Friday posted on X, before referencing two late administrators. 'Beth Coalter and Vernon Pugh will be turning in their graves.'
Tomasin claimed he had been moved to make a video because there had been no communication from World Rugby regarding the revamped format, which will give second and third division teams the opportunity to qualify for three 'world championship legs' and play against the top eight at the end of each season. These will then shape the divisional split for the following season.
'This has been pretty rough for the entire world series as a whole,' said Tomasin, a two-time Olympian. 'No team agrees with it. And the worst part about it all is that it wasn't like we learnt about it this season and they are going to implement it next season.
'The teams found out about this, that things were changing, around January and we found out this was going to be the way things were going forward in late-February or March. So we found out mid-season the changes were happening for next season, which doesn't give teams any time to prepare. It also creates a lot of volatility on the world series. It's essentially not the way sevens has always gone.
'You could say we should have played better if we didn't want to be in this position. I agree with that. We haven't played well enough this year to compete at the top of the table. If you know me, you know I'm not someone who will throw shade at other places [over] my performance.
'[But] it puts us in a pretty precarious place. I'm ultimately making this video because World Rugby hasn't said anything to the fans and I've been getting messages wondering what's going on. This weekend in LA, the men's sevens team will be playing in the outside fields. We don't even get to play in the stadium. The top eight teams, both men and women, will be playing in the stadium. We will be playing on the outside field versus other teams in this sevens 2 situation.'
Friday subsequently composed a thread of posts on X in which he criticised 'WR spin' and suggested that the changes had been shaped through 'underhandedness'. He added that the framework was 'definitely not expanded' and represented 'a disaster for all tier 2 and tier 3 players'.
'The gap will get wider,' Friday continued. 'All so the select tier 1 unions can invest less in 7s and still remain at the Top 7s table. Shame on you World Rugby, the format isn't the issue, it's your event strategy and 7s leadership who are not fit for purpose. How about WR stops trying to be an events business before killing the 7s completely.'
No consultation and transparency, say players
Tomasin suggested the new structure was 'a knee-jerk reaction' to fixing the financial results yielded by the sevens. It was reported by The New Zealand Herald in January the sevens series was facing a fraught future because of 'multimillion-dollar losses'.
'Their idea was that the move from 16 teams to 12 teams would match the Olympic format,' Tomasin added. 'Now, obviously, the Olympic format doesn't matter [because] they've taken it to eight teams. What does it do to the game?
'Now I'm talking my own opinions here. I think the separation between the top level of the teams and the next level of teams is not good for the game.'
World Rugby's press release insisted the new format had been 'shaped through stakeholder consultation and evaluation of the sporting landscape' but the United States Rugby Player Association released a statement declaring that changes had been carried out 'without consultation, transparency and support from players'.
'Announcing major structural changes mid-season – unexpectedly designating this as a qualification year – undermines teams' ability to plan strategically and compromises the integrity of the competition,' it read.
'World Rugby had ample time to notify and include the players in this process from day one but failed to do so. These decisions have profound consequences on players' careers, contracts and programme funding, and the manner in which they were implemented is wholly unacceptable.'
Argentina are leading the current world series and will be in the top men's circuit alongside Fiji, Spain, South Africa, France, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain. Kenya, Uruguay, Ireland and USA are destined for division two.
Great Britain are also in eighth on the women's ladder, behind Fiji, USA, Japan, Canada, France, Australia and leaders New Zealand.