As well as being the first event of the new National Sevens Series, there’s a great line-up of music talent on the stage, and the England v Australia rugby and England v USA football will both be on the giant screen during the day.

The top-flight sevens action will be complemented by the Rugby Rocks Men’s Open and the ScrumQueens Women’s Open, and there are kids coaching sections and various entertainment all day from the gates opening at 9am until the VIP after party starting at midnight.

Feeder is the headline act on the stage, and there will be performances from The Parlotones, Alex Gardner and Just Jack among others.

We have 5 pairs of tickets to give away to our lucky readers, courtesy of event sponsor zavvi.com, so answer the following question and you could be at Rugby Rocks for free.

Which player was named the 2009 IRB World Sevens Player of the Year?

a) Ollie Phillips
b) Simon Amor
c) Phil Greening

Email your answer to competitions@front5.co.uk before the deadline of 12pm on Friday 11th June. The winners will be drawn at random, and the tickets will be available for collection on the gate.

For more information and to buy your tickets, visit www.rugbyrocks7s.com.

Sky will screen a 90-minute highlights show from each of the four tournaments in London, Bath, Manchester and Newquay.

The following teams have been confirmed in the line up to contest the first season’s trophy, featuring some of the brightest young sevens talent alongside seasoned pros:

· British Army
· Samurai International RFC
· The Smurfs
· HFW Kooga Wailers
· Gilbert Pups
· White Hart Marauders RFC
· RagingBull Ronin
· Apache
· Olorun ID

Here are the dates and times for the National Sevens Series on Sky Sports

RugbyRocks London 7s (Richmond Athletic Ground), 12th June 2010

15/06/10, Sky Sports 3, 19:30
15/06/10, Sky Sports 3, 23:00
16/06/10, Sky Sports 2, 9:00
16/06/10, Sky Sports 4, 14:00

West Country 7s (Keynsham RFC), 19th June 2010

22/06/10, Sky Sports 3, 19:30
22/06/10, Sky Sports 3, 0:00
23/06/10, Sky Sports 3, 19:30

Manchester 7s (Sale FC, Heywood Road), 4th July 2010

07/07/10, Sky Sports 4, 19:30
07/07/10, Sky Sports 4, 23:00
08/07/10, Sky Sports 3, 08:00

Newquay Surf 7s (Newquay Sports Centre), 17th July 2010

20/07/10, Sky Sports 3, 19:30
20/07/10, Sky Sports 3, 23:00
21/0710, Sky Sports 4, 12:00

The Manchester Rugby 7s (MR7s) is the premier summer rugby event in the North of England and in 2009 attracted thousands of spectators and players from all over the world!

With 24 world class rugby teams competing over two full days, including Sale Sharks and a number of top international invitation teams, expect intense, fast and thrilling rugby from start to finish. The MR7s will also host the third leg of the inaugural UK National Sevens Series, launching this summer.

The event is held on 3rd and 4th July 2010 at Sale FC, Heywood Rd. With easy metro links from the stadium to the city centre, the MR7s is ideally located for a weekend of partying around Manchester! Further event information can be found at www.ManchesterRugby7s.com

To win 4 VIP Hospitality tickets to the MR7s, email the following code, along with your name and address, to info@ManchesterRugby7s.com before the closing date of April 30th: RUGBYBLOG

Rugby

The festival will host the opening leg of the inaugural National 7s Series and there will be teams from the Guinness Premiership and RFU Championship on an invitational basis.

RugbyRocks is also now accepting entries for the RugbyRocks Men’s Open (places limited to 32 teams) and the ScrumQueens.com Women’s 7s (12 teams), while children can enjoy coaching sessions with players from Harlequins RFC.

Music and Entertainment

Festival highlights include:

• The National Sevens Series
• 32 Team men’s Open
• 12 Team women’s Open
• Kids coaching with stars of Harlequins RFC
• England vs. USA on giant outdoor screens
• Live music
• Experiential marketing activity from brands
• Food & Drink marquees
• DJ tents
• Pitchside VIP marquee, complete with exclusive bar, celebs, music, international rugby stars and Jacuzzi.
• After-festival boat party on the Thames
• Power kite displays
• Appearances from current Harlequins & England rugby players, as well as reigning IRB World 7s Player of the Year & IOC ambassador, Ollie Phillips.

Tickets are onsale now at www.rugbyrocks7s.com for General Admission (£15), Grandstand (£20) while VIP tickets can be purchased directly from RugbyRocks by emailing ed@rugbyrocks7s.com

The Rugby Blog is giving readers the chance to win a pair of General Admission tickets – just email your answer to the question below to competitions@front5.co.uk.

Who are the reigning Sevens World Champions?

The closing date is 31st March 2010, and winners will be notified by email shortly afterwards.

The Series will take place in June/July 2010 and in its inaugural year, tournaments will take place in London, Bath, Manchester and Newquay. It will feature 10 teams, including national-level players from across the UK, battling for individual tournament honours and the overall, aggregate Series title. With the support of the Home Unions, UR7s plans to expand the Series to Wales and Scotland in subsequent seasons.
 
“The announcement of the UK National Series is a huge step forward for Rugby Sevens in the UK,” said Ben Ryan, England Rugby Union Sevens coach and RFU National Academy Coach. “It will give Sevens a stronger platform in this country and give increased opportunities for more players to experience this great sport.”
 
The 2010 Tournament will feature the following events:
RugbyRocks London 7s, June 12th
West Country 7s (Bath), June 19th
Manchester 7s, July 4th
Newquay Surf 7s, July 17th

Series Structure:
The UK National Sevens will comprise of ten core specialist Sevens teams, featuring national-level players, plus two invitational sides competing at each host tournament. Teams gain points on where they finish at each event aggregating a Series league table.

For all the details, head to UR7s.com

Members of the International Olympic Committee listened to presentations led by Bernard Lapasset and including Agustin Pichot and Jonah Lomu, and were convinced that the sport would bring something special to the Olympic party.

81 of the 93 members voted to include the sport.

Great news. Let’s all go to Rio…

IRB chief executive Mike Miller said this week, “This is right up there with the inception of the Rugby World Cup and the game going open. We have 116 members of the IRB, but there are 205 nations involved in the Olympics and I have already been approached by a number of countries who have said that if sevens is included, they will be interested in investing in rugby.”

The vote takes place at 10.30am this morning, in which IOC members will evaluate the merits of both Rugby and Golf to decide what they could bring to the Olympic Games – it’s not a choice between them though, since both are hopeful of being included in Rio in 2016.

We’ll bring you news of the results as soon as they are announced.

I was slightly anxious, but generally excited about the day and I set off early, heeding the RFU warnings about losing your accreditation if you are late. Nobody wants to look like the novice, so I turned up trying to pretend I knew what I was doing and where I was going.

Spelt my name wrong…

After picking up my pass, I was faced with my first dilemma. On the information sheet that came with the pass, there was separate information about where to go for ‘Rugby Writers’, ‘TV/Radio/Internet’ and photographers – I could rule out the latter, but was I a Rugby Writer or ‘Internet’?

So West Stand or East Stand? I read through both sets of instructions, and what clinched it was the promise of lunch on the commentary gantry, compared with light refreshments for the rugby writers.

Off I went to the West Stand after a rendez-vous with The Rugby Blog competition winner to hand over some tickets, took the lift to the 4th floor and made my way to the press gantry. I didn’t see a single person on the way to check my press pass, so it made me think I should have just turned up at other events (but it might be a different story for an international!).

The UR7s team were already in position, as were the Sky Sports commentators and a few others, so I get myself sorted, ready to start the live updates for the first game at 10am.

Just as the game starts, Shaun Edwards adopts the seat next to me, but doesn’t seem to be that keen on chatting – he’s content to just watch the games and say ‘Good hit’ at every tackle. We have a brief conversation, but I managed to avoid anything like: ‘I work for The Rugby Blog.’ / ‘Who?’.

The whole stadium was pretty quiet early on, (there weren’t many people on the press gantry either) but I was soon feeling very much at home, and actually slightly aggrieved that the refreshments and lunch were non-existent. The Sky Sports team had their own thermos of coffee – that’s experience for you – but I had to make do with a trip to the burger van at lunchtime.

I can’t complain though, because enjoying the Sevens from the best seat in the house was a privilege and something of a dream come true. I’ve got my fingers crossed that now The Rugby Blog has made the media list, there will be more days like this to come.

Not a bad view…

Look out for more ‘live updates’ on The Rugby Blog over the course of this season. We can’t promise you every match, but we’ll do our best.