Global Youth Sevens 2026: how to watch, tickets, who is coming and how New Zealand won both Cups last year

The Global Youth Sevens, the international under-18 sevens tournament that grew out of the old World School Sevens, is back at Dilworth School in Epsom, Auckland, from Friday 18 to Sunday 20 December. The organisers expect around 80 teams, about 40 of them from overseas, which would make it the biggest edition yet. A note on the date: it was earlier listed for 12 and 13 December, and we repeated that in our sevens calendar. Those dates belong to the tournament's new Sunshine Coast leg at the Kawana Sports Precinct in Queensland. Auckland is 18 to 20 December.

How to watch

Every match on all three fields is streamed live, and on demand afterwards, on the tournament's own platform:

• Watch on GY7+, the official stream, available in New Zealand and worldwide. A full tournament pass is NZ$19.99 plus GST and gives 12 months of access, including replays of every match. A day pass is NZ$9.99 plus GST for 24 hours. Help with the stream: stream support or info@globalyouthsevens.rugby.
• Sky Sport NZ shows Field 1, the main field, live and on demand to existing subscribers. Check the Sky guide closer to the time.
• Stan Sport shows Field 1 in Australia.

Field 1 has multi-camera television coverage. Fields 2 and 3 are filmed by an automated AI camera system, so the coverage of teams playing on those fields will look different.

The tournament also posts highlights and full matches from previous years on its YouTube channel, a good way to see the 2025 finalists before they arrive.

Tickets

Tickets are sold through Flicket and at the gate. Online prices carry a booking fee.

The venue is Dilworth School's senior campus, 2 Erin Street, Epsom, Auckland. The organisers describe it as an all-weather event; refunds are given only if it is cancelled.

What it is

The tournament was founded in Auckland in 2016 by Phil Gaze of Next Generation Sport, with roots that the organisers trace back to the Condor Sevens. It paused for Covid, returned in 2022 with 32 teams, grew to 52 in 2023 and 60 in 2024, when 27 of the teams came from overseas, and last year's results list more than 70 teams across the boys' and girls' draws. It is now a two-country event.

The Auckland event is for under-18s. Boys must be 16, 17 or 18 at the time of the tournament (born 2008, 2009 or 2010), with no exceptions. Girls born between 2008 and 2011 are eligible, and 15-year-old girls may play with the tournament director's approval. Squads are 12 to 14 players, with 12 selected for each match.

Most of the teams are representative, academy, club or composite sides rather than individual schools, and the organisers encourage that because of the strength of the field. New Zealand Rugby's own national under-18 sides play, alongside invitation teams such as the NZ Cavaliers, Aotearoa Māori and New Edition, teams from Australia, Japan, the United States, China, South Africa and Chile, and Pacific heritage sides representing Niue, Samoa, Fiji and the Cook Islands. New team entries for Auckland need the tournament director's approval; the entry fee is NZ$2,200 per team, and international teams must stay in the official tournament accommodation.

NZ Rugby signed a live-streaming partnership with the event in November 2024.

The organisers like to point out who has played it. The very first tournament in 2016 featured a New Zealand schoolboy side that included Hoskins Sotutu, Billy Proctor, Leroy Carter, Vilimoni Koroi, Etene Nanai-Seturo, Josh Moorby and Devan Flanders, and still did not win it. In 2019, a 15-year-old Jorja Miller played for the Condor girls' side that beat the Cook Islands 48-0; five years later she was an Olympic champion.

Last year: New Zealand Under-18 win both Cups

The 2025 tournament ran from 19 to 21 December, and New Zealand's under-18 sides won both titles, though neither had it easy.

Boys. New Zealand Under-18 lost to Australia Under-18 24-19 in the qualifying rounds on the first day. On the final day they beat the NZ Cavaliers 19-15, Australia beat Aotearoa Māori 39-5, and in the Cup final New Zealand reversed the first-day result emphatically, 41-10. It also reversed the 2024 result, when Australia beat New Edition 31-7 for the title. The NZ Cavaliers and Aotearoa Māori were the losing semi-finalists.

Girls. New Zealand Under-18 also lost to Australia Under-18 on the first day, 29-21. On the final day they beat Central Storm 26-10 and Japan, the 2024 champions, 24-19. In the other half of the draw the NZ Cavaliers beat Australia Under-18 33-24 and then Rugby Vault 29-12, setting up an all-New Zealand final that New Zealand Under-18 won 27-10.

Among the other results on the last day, Samoa NZ Boys beat the Otago Seafarers 19-10, the USA boys beat North Harbour 26-19, and Matatū's girls beat New Edition 17-7. The full results, field by field, are on the tournament site.

Who is coming this year

The tournament has been announcing its entries one at a time. Confirmed for Auckland so far:

• New Zealand Under-18 boys, the defending champions.
• Australia Under-18 boys, 2024 champions and 2025 finalists.
• Australia Under-18 girls, who beat the New Zealand Under-18 girls in pool play last year.
• NZ Cavaliers girls, 2025 finalists. Their 2024 match against the Australian Schoolgirls, which they won 27-26 with a try after the hooter after six lead changes, is on the tournament's YouTube channel.
• NZ Cavaliers boys, 2025 semi-finalists.
• Aotearoa Māori boys, 2025 semi-finalists.
• Australian Schoolgirls, who are coming back across the Tasman.

The Otago Seafarers' boys and girls are heading to the Sunshine Coast leg. The full entry list and the draw had not been published when this was updated; fixtures, the organisers say, will be published closer to each event.

The Sunshine Coast leg

The weekend before Auckland, on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 December, the tournament runs its new Australian event at the Kawana Sports Precinct on the Sunshine Coast, following a first Australian edition on the Gold Coast in December 2023. It has more grades than Auckland, adding under-16 and under-14 competitions to the under-18s, for boys and girls.

The pathway

For New Zealand's school players, December is now a clear run. The regional Condor qualifiers in October and November, the national Condor Sevens at Blake Park on 5 and 6 December, and then, for those selected into the New Zealand and invitation sides, Dilworth two weeks later against the world. The national sides at Dilworth are where New Zealand's sevens coaches look for the next All Blacks Sevens and Black Ferns Sevens players.

We will publish the full entry list and the draw when they are released and report from Dilworth across the three days.

Sources: Global Youth Sevens (globalyouthsevens.rugby): home page, how to watch, team registration, Auckland and Sunshine Coast tournament pages, and 2025 fixtures and results; Auckland Unlimited (aucklandnz.com); NZ Rugby and allblacks.com, November 2024 and December 2024; Rugby Australia, 21 December 2025.