Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: What was the world champion rugby team in 2018?
The 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens was the seventh edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. Organised by World Rugby, it was held at AT&T Park in San Francisco, United States. A total of 84 matches (52 men's and 32 women's) were played over three days from July 20–22, 2018 with both tournaments being played for the first time in a knock-out only format.[1] New Zealand won the championship for both events — defeating England in the men's final and France in the women's final.
Success at international level and the establishment of four professional teams has increased interest in rugby union as a sport in Ireland. As of 2018, the Ireland national rugby union team was ranked 2nd in the World Rugby Rankings. Also in 2018, at the World Rugby Awards, Ireland were presented with a 'hat-trick' of awards, with Jonathan Sexton winning the Player of the Year, Joe Schmidt the Coach of the Year, and the national squad the Team of the Year awards.
The 2018 World Rugby Under 20 Trophy was the eleventh annually held international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams, with host nation Romania, along with seven other sides, playing in a group stage followed by a knockout round to determine a champion as well as promotion to the following years' World Rugby Under 20 Championship.
The Australia women's national rugby sevens team were champions of the inaugural Women's Sevens World Cup in 2009. The team plays in the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series as one of the "core teams" on the world tour, of which they were crowned Champions in 2015–16. The team also played in the preceding competition to the current world series, the IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup. In 2016, they won the inaugural gold medal at the Rio Olympics.
In 2006 a new system was introduced where each nation plays the others three times, though in 2007 and 2011 the teams played each other only twice, as both were World Cup years. Since Argentina's strong performances in the 2007 World Cup, after the 2009 Tri Nations tournament, SANZAR (South Africa, New Zealand and Australian Rugby) invited the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) to join an expanded Four Nations tournament in 2012. The competition has been officially rechristened as The Rugby Championship beginning with the 2012 edition. The competition reverted to the Tri Nations' original home-and-away format, but now involving four teams. In World Cup years, an abbreviated tournament is held in which each team plays the others only once. New Zealand are the current champions, having won the 2018 title with a round to spare.
The New Zealand women's national rugby sevens team is the reigning women's Rugby World Cup Sevens champions, having won the most recent edition in 2018, and also have been a "core team" that participates in all rounds of the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series since that competition's inception in 2012–13.
The 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, the 20th annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national men's rugby sevens teams. The Sevens Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999–2000. This series also, for the second time, as a qualifier for the 2020 Summer Olympics, with the top four countries qualifying automatically.
Mark Roche (born 25 January 1993) is an Irish rugby union player. He has played as a scrum-half for the Ireland national rugby sevens team since 2015. He played for Ireland in the 2017 Rugby Europe Grand Prix, helping Ireland qualify for the 2018 Hong Kong qualifier and the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens. He was part of the Ireland team that reached the semifinals of the 2018 Hong Kong Sevens qualifier for the 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series. 
Roche started at scrum-half for the Ireland team that finished third at the 2018 London Sevens; Roche was selected to the tournament Dream Team at the conclusion of the tournament.
On January 20, 2018 Tande achieved gold medal of the 2018 Ski Jumping World Championships. In the three-part competition, he became the ski flying World Champion beating Kamil Stoch and Richard Freitag. Next day, Tande became a double 2018 Ski Flying World Champion. In team competition Norway, including Tande and his teammates Robert Johansson, Johann Andre Forfang and Andreas Stjernen, defended title of Ski Flying World Champions. The same team is 2018 team Olympic champion.
The 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament for both men and women's teams was held from Friday 20 July 2018 to Sunday 22 July 2018 in AT&T Park, San Francisco in the United States. Unlike previous Rugby World Cup Sevens tournaments and the annual World Rugby Sevens Series events, in each of the genders, both competitions were played in knock-out only formats.
The Rugby World Cup Sevens originated with a proposal by the Scottish Rugby Union to the International Rugby Board. The inaugural tournament was held at Murrayfield in Edinburgh in 1993, and has been held every four years since. England won the inaugural tournament, defeating Australia 21–17 in the final.
For women's Rugby World Cup Sevens, Australia won the first tournament in 2009 and New Zealand won the second and third tournaments in 2013 and 2018. New Zealand are the current men's and women's world champions having won both tournaments in 2018.
The 2018 Americas Rugby League Championship will be held in Jacksonville, Florida in November 2018. This tournament is the 3rd Americas Rugby League Championship. The tournament will also act as part of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup qualifying. The winning team will directly qualify for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup, while the runner-up will progress to the intercontinental repechage in 2019.
The 2018 European Rugby Champions Cup Final was the final match in the 2017–18 European Rugby Champions Cup, and the twenty-third European club rugby final in general.
The Jamaica national rugby sevens team represents Jamaica in rugby sevens competitions. As champions of the 2017 RAN Sevens, they are the first ever Caribbean side to qualify for the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens and will also participate in the 2018 Commonwealth Games. They have previously featured in Hong Kong Sevens World Series qualifying tournaments of 2013, 2017 and 2018.
Among other competitions, Digi Sport has broadcast the Liga I (until 2019), Cupa României (until 2021), Liga II, La Liga (until 2022), Supercopa de España, Copa del Rey, Uefa Champions League, Serie A (until 2022), Supercoppa Italiana, Ligue 1 (until 2021),Coupe de la Ligue, Football League Cup, Scottish Premiership (until 2018), Liga I (futsal), Liga Națională (men's handball), Liga Naţională (women's handball), Women's EHF Champions League, Romania men's national handball team, Divizia A1 (Volei Masculin), Divizia A1 (Volei Feminin), CEV Champions League, CEV Women's Champions League, Liga Națională (men's basketball), Euroleague Basketball, ADAC GT Masters, Audi Sport TT Cup, Euroformula Open Championship, Formula1 (until 2018), Moto GP (until 2017), Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, IndyCar (until 2018), Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, NASCAR, Wimbledon (until 2016), WTA Tour Championships (until 2021), WTA Premier tournaments (until 2021), WTA International tournaments (until 2021), ATP World Tour Masters 1000, ATP World Tour Finals, Rugby World Cup (in year 2015), European Rugby Champions Cup, European Rugby Challenge Cup, IAAF Diamond League, Glory, Romanian Superliga (water polo).
The 2018–19 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series the seventh edition of the global circuit for women's national rugby sevens teams, organised by World Rugby. There six tournament events scheduled on the 2018–19 circuit with twelve teams competing in each tournament. The series also, for the second time, as an Olympic qualifier.
Rugby union in England is one of the leading professional and recreational team sports. In 1871 the Rugby Football Union, the governing body for rugby union in England, was formed by 21 rugby clubs, and the first international match, which involved England, was played in Scotland. The English national team compete annually in the Six Nations Championship, and are former world champions after winning the 2003 Rugby World Cup. The top domestic men's club competition is Premiership Rugby, and English clubs also compete in international competitions such as the European Rugby Champions Cup. The top domestic women's competition is the Premier 15s.
Rugby union is a moderately popular sport in Japan. The Japanese national rugby union team, controlled by the Japan Rugby Football Union, has been to every Rugby World Cup since 1987. The country will host the Rugby World Cup in 2019. Japan's first win in the Rugby World Cup was against Zimbabwe in 1991, which was also one of the national team's first wins. They also caused a significant upset in the 2015 World Cup, beating two-time champions South Africa. The Japanese rugby team has been playing in international tournaments since the 1930s.
German players occasionally break through into French or English clubs, such as Robert Mohr at La Rochelle or Sascha Fischer at Périgueux.
The German men's national 15s team played their first international match in 1927 against France, but have yet to qualify for the Rugby World Cup. With the partition of Germany following the Second World War, the East and West fielded separate teams until the reunification of Germany in 1990. In 2017-18 the men competed in the Championship Division, the top tier of Rugby Europe's International Championships, a European tournament below the Six Nations. As Germany placed last in the competition, they face a relegation match against Portugal in June 2018. The men's national team was ranked 28th out of 105 teams on World Rugby's May 2018 list.The German women's national 15s team was founded in 1989 and initially resorted under Germany's youth rugby organization. The team succeeded in qualifying for the 1998 Women's Rugby World Cup as well as the 2002 edition. In 2002 the women's side finished 2nd in the 2002 FIRA Women's European Nations Cup and 4th in 2005. The national women's side was ranked 19th out of 52 teams by World Rugby in March 2018.
The 2018 Rugby Europe Women's Sevens Grand Prix Series was the 2018 edition of the annual rugby sevens competition for national women's teams in Rugby Europe. The top non-core teams will participate in a 2019 qualifying tournament for the 2019-20 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, and the bottom two will be relegated to the 2019 Trophy.
The Romania national under-20 rugby union team is Romania's junior national team in rugby union. They have represented Romania in the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy now known as World Rugby Under 20 Trophy, but not yet in the World Rugby Under 20 Championship. They participated in the first three Junior World Trophies, winning it in 2009, and in 2018 they will be the hosts of the World Rugby Under 20 Trophy for the first time.
Ian Fitzpatrick (born 28 November 1995) is an Irish rugby union player. In rugby sevens, he plays as a forward for the Ireland national rugby sevens team. Fitzpatrick began playing rugby sevens in 2015 while with Lansdowne. He was a member of the Irish sevens team that finished second in the 2017 Sevens Grand Prix Series, qualifying for the 2018 Hong Kong Sevens and the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens. Fitzpatrick played for Ireland at the 2018 Hong Kong Sevens qualifier, where Ireland fell to Japan 12–7 in the semifinals and failed in their quest to qualify for the 2018–19 World Series.
Colombia has not yet qualified for any major global rugby sevens competitions, such as the Rugby World Cup Sevens, the World Rugby Sevens Series, nor Rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics. Colombia participated in the 2018 Sudamérica Rugby Sevens, a qualifying tournament for the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens, but failed to qualify.
The 2018–19 European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the fifth season of the European Rugby Champions Cup, the annual club rugby union competition run by European Professional Club Rugby (ECPR) for teams from the top six nations in Europe. It is the 24th season of pan-European professional club rugby competition. This competition will be the first to be sponsored by Heineken since the 2013–14 season.
The tournament is organized by World Rugby to be held on 20–22 July 2018, with twenty-four teams in attendance. Automatic qualification is extended to the host and the eight quarterfinalists of the previous World Cup. Four more teams qualified based on placement in the 2016-17 World Rugby Sevens Series, and the remainder are to be decided in each of the six regions' respective tournaments.